As part of our para badminton development programme we had three players and a coach/manager from Badminton Papua New Guinea assisted by our Development Officer – Dhanny Oud in Melbourne recently, attending the Australia National Para Badminton Championships followed by a training camp.
One of many positives to emerge from the tournament were two silver medals to David Kaniku in the SH6 Men’s Singles and SH6 Mixed Doubles with Amy Dunn from New Zealand.
Following the tournament, Badminton Australia ran a four-day para badminton camp at the Australia Paralympics training venue in Essendon, which was well attended by both wheelchair and standing athletes from Australian, New Zealand and PNG. The Australian National Para Badminton Coach Ian Bridge and Dhanny delivered both on-court and classroom sessions including goal setting, tournament entry processes, learning to adapt to unexpected situations as an adaptive athlete and a nutrition session to emphasise the importance of a good eating plan.
On-court sessions included movement exercises led by para-players with Dhanny taking to a sport wheelchair, learning how to play and coach badminton from the perspective of a WH player. The on-site pool was well utilised by the players at the end of each day to help with recovery.
One of the many interesting discussions within the groups of mixed countries was “how it is to live as a para-player in their own country” with the players from Papua New Guinea keeping the attention of their peers in a well-presented overview of what they experience on a daily basis which is significantly different to what players from Australia and New Zealand experience.
The players have now returned home with added motivation and greatly enhanced knowledge to share with their peers and implement into their day to day training programme as they work towards the Oceania Para Badminton Championships in 2025.
