BADMINTON

Eight-time national women’s badminton player Nekeisha Blake is set to return to the court in August after a lifetime ban was reduced to one year by the Appeals Committee on Friday.

ALISTAIR ESPINOZA and Avril Marcelle claimed the respective Senior Male and Female Player of the Year accolades on Saturday evening, as the Trinidad and Tobago Badminton Association (TTBA) held their second annual awards function at the Central Regional Indoor Sports Arena, Saith Park, Chaguanas on Saturday evening.

Badminton was first played in Ancient Greece and Egypt when players hit an early version of the shuttlecock, made of bird’s feathers, with a racquet. The sport of Badminton was played in the Olympic Games for the first time in 1992, when Barcelona was the host city, after being a demonstration sport in Munich, Germany in 1972. Initially men’s and women’s singles and doubles were introduced.  In Atlanta in 1996, a mixed doubles event was included, this is the only mixed doubles event in all of the Olympic sports.

The Trinidad and Tobago Badminton Association (TTBA) is the local body responsible for the badminton.