Four na­tions, in­clud­ing hur­ri­cane-rav­aged Ja­maica, are set to con­test the Care­ba­co Se­nior Bad­minton Cham­pi­onships at the Na­tion­al Rac­quet Cen­tre (NRC) in Or­ange Grove, Tacarigua, from Oc­to­ber 31 to No­vem­ber 4.

The par­tic­i­pat­ing coun­tries are Guyana, Bar­ba­dos, host na­tion T&T, and Ja­maica, who, up to yes­ter­day, was still try­ing to re­cov­er from the pas­sage of Hur­ri­cane Melis­sa. Or­gan­is­ers have agreed to wait un­til Fri­day for the Ja­maican con­tin­gent for Sat­ur­day’s start of the tour­na­ment. Pres­i­dent of the T&T Bad­minton As­so­ci­a­tion, Chan­dri­ka Ram­sub­hag, re­vealed the tour­na­ment is cost­ing his as­so­ci­a­tion well over $500 000, com­pris­ing ex­pens­es for of­fi­cials’ trav­el, ac­com­mo­da­tion, out-of-pock­et, and oth­er ex­pens­es.

T&T’s top play­ers, such as Vishal Ran­sub­hag and Travis Sinanan, are among two of the seed­ed play­ers for the tour­na­ment. Scores of play­ers are set to hit the courts at Tacarigua for ac­tion, as the tour­na­ment did not at­tract as many in­ter­na­tion­al play­ers as ex­pect­ed. Ram­sub­hag said since there was not the turnout of out­side play­ers as ex­pect­ed, the tour­na­ment was opened up to the pub­lic, which ac­count­ed for a larg­er pool of par­tic­i­pants.

The lo­cal con­tin­gent will be led by top stars Cheque­da De Boulet, T’Shelle Barnes, Danyelle Barnes, Ja­ni­ah Boodoos­ingh, and Nekeisha Blake, among many oth­ers, while the men’s con­tin­gent will have Ram­sub­hag, Leon Cassie, Ethan Jit­mans­ingh, Matthaus Joachim, Jonathan Julien, Ethan Ram­cha­ran, Sinanan, and Liam Per­sad on the large ros­ter.

In 2022, the T&T team won a to­tal of 57 medals and 12 ti­tles when the tour­na­ment was last held at the Rac­quet Cen­tre, and un­der coach Anil Seep­aul, they are hop­ing to sur­pass that amount. De Boulet, con­sid­ered one of the best play­ers in the re­gion, is ex­pect­ed to have her hands filled this time around, with Ram­sub­hag and Sinanan to lead from the front among the men.

The draw for the tour­na­ment was done yes­ter­day.

Mean­while, the Care­ba­co Se­niors is set to be fol­lowed by the T&T Open In­ter­na­tion­al Bad­minton Tour­na­ment, which will run from No­vem­ber 5 to 9 at the Tacarigua fa­cil­i­ty.

T&T will be among 16 coun­tries that will com­pete, with the oth­ers fea­tur­ing Ar­genti­na, Azer­bai­jan, Bar­ba­dos, Bermu­da, Cana­da, El Sal­vador, Guyana, In­dia, Italy, Ja­maica, Guyana, Pe­ru, Suri­name, Slo­va­kia, and the Unit­ed States.

BAR­BA­DOS

Sa­hara Brath­waite, Isa­iah Hinds, Samuel Humphrey, Shailon John­son, Ken­nie King, Nathan King, Shae Mar­tin, Alec Sat­taur, Sab­ri­na Scott, Kaden Stu­art, Xia Trot­man

GUYANA

N’Kosi Beat­on, Mish­ka Be­har­ry, Akil­li Haynes, Priyan­na Ramd­hani

JA­MAICA

Craig Al­li­son, Ken­neth An­glin, Alexan­dra Beck­ford, Bre­an­na Bosnott, Bri­an­na Burke, Daniel Ford, Ti­jae Hinds, Stephen Lue-Yue, Matthew Ogle, Joelle Siolvera, Matthew Yee Grant

T&T

Sameer Ali, Za­mir Ali, Danyelle Barnes, T’Shelle Barnes, Cheyenne Bho­la, Nek­sisha Blake, Ja­ni­ah Boodoos­ingh, Leon Cassie, Dono­van David, Cheque­da De Boulet, Kenise Gan­goo, Azaria Gaskill, Dex­ter Gif­fard, Na­talia Hen­ry, Zyah Hold­er, Dante Homer, Yan­nic In­niss, Josh Je­bods­ingh, Nicholl Je­bods­ingh, Ethan Jit­mans­ingh, Ama­ra Joachim, Matthaus Joachim, Mikael Joachim, Jonathan Julien, Vance Juter­am, Samiya Karim, Aditya Ma­haraj, Ar­i­an­na Man­sook, Vish­wanath Maraj, Roger Moore, Sher­az Nab­bie, Che Pe­dro, Liam Per­sad, Ethan Ram­cha­ran, Ja­son Ram­jass, Kaveer Ra­moutar, Vishal Ram­sub­hag, Kara-Ash­ley Robert­son, Verone Sal­ick, Anil Seep­aul, Tris­ton Siew­dass, Travis Sinanan, Aadil Singh, Adam Singh, Ankit Singh, Jace Smith, Zion St Rose, Ten­niya To­bias, Aliyah Urquhart, Ama­ra Urquhart, Is­abelle Waller.