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60 foreign players attend Uganda International Badminton Open

Xinhua, February 5, 2015 Adjust font size:

A record 60 foreign players have registered to take part in the 2015 Uganda International Badminton Open Championship slated for Feb. 19-22 in the capital.

Milan Ludik who is ranked 94 by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) has been seeded top in the men's singles, while Uganda's top player who plies his trade in the Netherlands, Edwin Ekiring is seeded 7th.

Simon Mugabi, the CEO of the Uganda Badminton Association told on Wednesday that they are glad the tournament has attracted top players from around the world.

"We expect a very competitive event. This means local players must be at their best if they hope to match foreign players," Mugabi said.

Besides Ludik from the Czech Republic, Italy's Rosario Maddolani and Giovanni Grecco also entered the men's singles, while the women's top seed is Grace Gabriel from Nigeria.

Mugabi said although Dinuka Karunaratne will not defend his men's singles title, other players from Sri Lanka have been drawn in the tournament which will take place at the MTN Arena, Lugogo.

The event will have the men's and women's singles and doubles, together with the mixed doubles.

Uganda's top women player Bridget Shamim Bangi who did not perform well in three European tournaments in Estonia, Sweden and Iceland last month said that she is training hard to be able to perform well and score some ranking points.

"My target is to keep working hard so that I accumulate enough points with the view of qualifying for the 2016 Rio Olympics," said Bangi who is ranked 108 by BWF.

The other foreign players who have been drawn in the tournament will come from India, Zambia, Egypt, Slovakia, Turkey, Hungary, South Africa, Bulgaria, Kenya, Mauritius and Iran. Endi