Maltese Junior Players in Cyprus

Two players from Badminton Malta’s Junior Academy will this week be travelling to Cyprus to take part in an U/17 international Boys’ Singles tournament.

Kyle Sciberras Nigel Degeatano

This tournament will be taking place in Nicosia and it will see the participation of twenty-four junior players who will be divided into six groups of four players each.

At the end of the initial intra-group matches which will be played on a round-robin basis, the six group winners and the best two runners-up will proceed to the second round. This will be played on a knock-out basis and will establish the eventual tournament winner.

The remaining sixteen players will be involved in a separate Singles competition, to be similarly played on a KO basis.

The intention behind the event is to give the participants the opportunity to play as many matches as possible in order to gauge and hone their skills against foreign opposition, thereby motivating them to higher achievement.

The tournament format provides a minimum number of matches to each participant, who would otherwise tend to be demotivated if he were to be eliminated from the competition at his first defeat.

The Maltese participants are Nigel Degaetano and Kyle Sciberras; they will be accompanied by John Attard, the General Secretary of Badminton Malta, under whose initiative this participation came about.

Both players have been preparing themselves in earnest for this event. Though they have already faced foreign opposition in Malta, this Cypriot tournament will effectively be the first time that they will be competing on foreign soil.

It is relevant to note that Degaetano is the current U/13 national Singles champion while Sciberras is the current holder of the equivalent U/16 national title.

Degaetano and Sciberras are also the joint national U/16 Doubles champions.

While wishing its players a successful outcome, Badminton Malta reaffirmed its commitment to invest in the development of its upcoming junior players by providing them with opportunities of this nature in order to improve their standard of play.

John Attard General Secretary Badminton Malta

17^th January 2011.