The third Yonex Sunrise Zest Open National Badminton Championships is scheduled for  September 19-22 in Basundhara, Kathmandu.

Organised by the Zest Badminton Academy, the tournament will feature events in nine categories: men’s and women’s singles, men’s doubles event in two categories (open and unranked), U-15 men’s and women’s open, mixed doubles, masters above 35-yrs and above 45-yrs age. The event will be held under technical support of Nepal Badminton Association while Yonex have agreed to provide the kits required for the tournament, informed the tournament coordinator Sudip Yonjan on Monday.

Yonjan, also the chief coach of Nepal Badminton Association, informed that altogether 305 shuttlers have registered their names for the four-day championships including 35 in men’s singles and 17 in women’s singles events. “We are overwhelmed by the number of participants which is a massive rise compared to the last edition,” said Yonjan. In all, 43 teams including 17 districts, clubs and school will be compete in the tournament.   

Madhu Sudan Pathak, president of the Academy, said that they were trying to contribute to the development of the sport by organising the tournament as they had been running the Academy for the last three years. “As there were no badminton academies operated from private sector, we decided to start our own in view of providing opportunities to badminton aspirants. Yonjan has been mentoring the aspiring shuttlers so far in the academy,” said Pathak.  

“The Academy aims at producing future stars and is not profit-oriented,” said Pathak. He informed that the Academy also has the hostel facility that can accommodate 25 players. The national players has been using the academy for training purposes for free. Nepal Basketball Association also uses the facility.