With the opportunity to align with two Badminton World Federation Grade 3 International Challenge tournaments held recently in Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands, Badminton Oceania took the moment to include a number of development activities during this period.
One of the initiatives focused on Technical Officials development. Oceania Line Judge, Lynne Dobson (NZL), was responsible for the training and management of the large group of local line judges recruited for the tournaments. Many had been line judges at the 2022 Northern Marianas Pacific Mini-Games where they gained their Pacific Accredited Line Judge qualification. Since then, they have been working at many local tournaments and eager to be involved in this new level of tournament to further their experience. In total, at the end of the two weeks of tournament play, 31 line judges were awarded Pacific Accredited and 17 were awarded Pacific Certificated qualifications.
Umpire development also continued on from the 2022 Pacific Mini Games with two local umpires, Christy Villaflor and Arriane Antoina, who both gained their Pacific Accredited Umpire qualification at the Mini-Games, were appointed as part of the Umpire team for the CROWNE PLAZA Northern Marianas Open 2023 and the TAKECARE Saipan International 2023 to work alongside an experienced team of umpires from Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia; this also included upskilling to use the umpire tablet rather than the handwritten scoresheet. Both Umpires performed exceedingly well, at times under immense pressure from the competitive and close matches in the tournament.
An information session, led by Secretary General and BWF Referee Julie Carrel and assisted by the Badminton Oceania Technical Officials Chair and Oceania Referee Peter Cocker. Chair of the Oceania Umpire Assessment Panel and a BWF Umpire Assessor David Turner was present to also offer guidance, where the pathways for Referees, Umpires and Line Judges were explained, followed by our panel sharing their experiences as Technical Officials to the highest levels. This was an invaluable session as it inspired and motivated several of the local volunteers to continue their pathway to higher qualifications and opportunities.
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- Pacific Certificated Line Judge recipients
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- Pacific Accredited Line Judge recipients
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- Tournament Referees & Northern Mariana Umpires
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- TAKECARE Saipan International 2023 Line Judges
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- TO’s Information Session
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- Line Judge Briefing
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- Line Judge Training
