Sainsbury's UK School Games : What's Smashing About Badminton

Richard Lane

What's Smashing About Badminton

18 June 2009, 1:03 pm

By Nicole Van Dijken

Every couple of weeks we feature one of the ten UK School Games sports for 2009, giving you an insight into everything interesting and unique about each sport. In this feature, UK School Games Coordinator for Badminton, Anneli MacDonald chats to us about the sport of Badminton...

How does badminton fit into the UK School Games?

Badminton was first included in the UKSG in 2007 in Coventry, and involves teams from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The badminton competition features both a team and individual event. The team event sees home nations playing rubbers against each other to determine the top home nation at the Games. The team winning the most rubbers wins the gold medal.

Which UK School Games competitors have gone on to achieve even greater success?

Sarah Milne and Jessica Fletcher, (UK School Games 2007 gold medalists from England) each recently won a bronze medal at the European Junior Championships in Milan. Other UK School Games athletes who competed include Sarah Thomas and Daniel van Hooijdonk (Wales), Kirsten Geals, Kirsty Gilmour, Kaity Hall, Craig Pollock, Steven Stewart (Scotland), Sinead Chambers, Tony Stephenson (Northern Ireland).

Are there any interesting world records associated with badminton?

Fu Haifeng of China set the official world smash record of 206miles per hour in 2005.

What is the most interesting and quirky fact you know about badminton?

A shuttle is made out of 16 feathers from the left wing of a goose.