We caught up with one of Badminton Australia’s top players, Setyana Mapasa ahead of the VICTOR Oceania Badminton Championships 2019. Mapasa is the reigning champion in both the women’s and mixed doubles. Since last year’s event, Setyana has undergone surgery with a serious leg injury but has returned to the court in 2019 with plenty of drive and motivation to defend her title alongside Gronya Somerville in the women’s doubles and new mixed doubles partner, Huaidong Tang.
What’s your greatest memory from the previous Oceania Championships that you’ve competed in?
My favourite memory from the previous regional events was winning the mixed doubles and women’s doubles events for a second time in 2018!
What are you most looking forward to in this year’s Oceania Championships?
This year will be my first time to play in the team event at the VICTOR Oceania Badminton Championships and I’m really looking forward to playing again and will hopefully win for Australia.
What are your long-term goals in badminton?
My current aim is to qualify for Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and to help the sport to grow in stature within Australia. I hope to equip young people to play Badminton better and inspire many new players to take up Badminton.
We’ll see plenty of new, young players in this year’s competition too as the juniors compete at the same time as the Open event. What advice would you give to the young aspiring players?
I really hope the young people would be able to have confidence and a sense of knowing who they are and what their strengths and weaknesses are. I think it’s really important to have a sense of integrity: being able to see things the right way and to do what’s right, both on and off the court. I know I haven’t always been a good example of this, but what I’ve experienced over the past several months of my life has made me realise just how important this really is.
Finally, be coachable and able to listen to the things you need to work on. Then sacrifice, be committed, work hard, increase your capacity, train tirelessly and give yourself to the sport and to those around you. I look forward to seeing lots of new faces at this year’s event.
