After four years of organizing a departmental youth tournament (TDJ), the club wanted to broaden its scope of action. As Valentin Faurie, educator at US Nord Gironde, explains: “We have been trying to structure the club for several years. After the TDJ, we said to ourselves that we had to take it to the next level by organizing a tournament to promote badminton.”
The club has chosen to go for a tournament, open to seniors, veterans but also certain categories of young people from juniors, by choosing doubles matches. “We chose the formula of a one-day tournament with two draws, which guarantees playing seven matches in the day,” explains Valentin Faurie.
In order to guarantee good playing conditions, the tournament was voluntarily limited: “to R5 ranking players. The tournament is reduced as much as possible because we only have 5 fields. » On this day, the objective is to welcome around one hundred players, men and women.
The choice of doubles is not trivial and corresponds to the practice of the club, which today has 100 licensees, with an almost equal proportion between young people and seniors.
This also makes it possible to meet the current expectations of players: “many clubs organize tournaments with this formula because it is more dynamic. As there are fewer waits between matches, it’s pleasant for bad players. » Entrance fees are set at €17 for a table.
Start of registrations
The organization of this first senior tournament represents a significant amount of work, started a long time ago.
“It was this summer, in August, that it all started. Since November, we have been actively working on it,” explains Valentin Faurie. The first step consisted of making the tournament official: “it was necessary to approve the tournament by completing the file, so that it was present in EBad, an application for registering for badminton competitions”.
The club was able to count on local support, in particular from Alain Leduc, from the Bourg club.
Once approval was obtained, registrations could be opened on January 25. A few days later, they are already experiencing great enthusiasm: “it’s already quite full, almost half. It’s going quickly because there are a lot of requests.” The tournament will take place on Sunday March 29. The mobilization will be important for the club: “there are six of us organizing the tournament but we will have around ten volunteers present to manage, among other things, the refreshment bar and the scorers’ table”.
A heavier organization than a TDJ: “It’s very similar but it’s bigger than a TDJ where there are 80 young people and their parents. We will have more meals to plan but also more drinks.”
The US Nord Gironde thus confirms its ambition for development and its commitment to the promotion of badminton in the region.
