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SPORTSHOUSE, the local sports gear retailer chain, plans
to organize a nationwide badminton tournament next year
to coincide with its silver anniversary and to encourage
Filipinos to make the sport a part of their lifestyle.
The
chain’s owner, Mars Chua, disclosed this yesterday
alongside plans to make the Sportshouse Corporate and
Celebrity Badminton Tournament bigger next year.
With the
event on its fifth year, Chua hopes that inviting
players from the provinces spurs more talented players
to join the tourney and thus promote the sport.
“We are
very happy to celebrate our 25th anniversary by holding
the Corporate and Celebrity Badminton tournament. We
were very satisfied with the huge outcome, and this is
the reason why we are planning to make it bigger next
year,” Chua said during the Sportshouse press launch and
fashion show at the SM Megamall Activity Center.
“Badminton is our lifestyle and I hope we can bring
sports to everyone’s lifestyle too. We are very excited
about the championships, where talented players from
different companies will battle it out for the title,”
he added.
Amelita
“Ming” Ramos, Philippine Badminton Association (PBA)
president and former First Lady, also graced the press
launch.
As a
prelude to the semifinals of the Corporate and Celebrity
tournament, Sportshouse and Dunlop
Philippines
held a fashion show on Friday.
The
presentation introduced sports “style essentials” and
the latest innovations and trends in sports and
outerwear from Sportshouse and Dunlop.
*****
World’s best start arriving today for RP Badminton
Open’s Grand Prix Gold
THE bulk
of the 2007 Bingo Bonanza Philippine Open Badminton
Championships cast arrives today, raring to get into
workout and hit top form for the $120,000 Grand Prix
Gold event firing off Wednesday at the PhilSports Arena
in Pasig City.
The
crack Chinese squad, headed by world No. 2 Chen Hong and
No. 5 Bao Chunlai, planes in at 4:45 p.m. aboard CX 919,
while the big 37-player Malaysian contingent, led by
world No. 3 men’s singles player Lee Chong Wei and
defending champion Hafiz Hashim arrives at 7:30 p.m. via
PR 337.
They are
among the 176 players from a more than 300-man cast
vying for top honors in five events in the five-day
championship expected to hit town in batches today.
Other
top players arriving today are Denmark’s world No. 9
Kenneth Jonassen and No. 13 ladies’ singles player Tine
Rasmussen; England’s Andrew Smith, American doubles
specialist Tony Gunawan, India’s defending ladies
singles champion Saina Nehwal.
Five
bets from Germany, Italy and Austria planed in Saturday
while world No. 4 ladies’ singles player Xu Huaiwen of
Germany, world No. 6 Pi Hongyan of France, and reigning
Olympic and Asian Games champion Taufik Hidayat of
Indonesia arrived yesterday along with 121 others from
18 countries.
The last
45 players, including 20 from South Korea, will arrive
tomorrow.
Thirty-five Filipinos, led by last year’s mixed-doubles
runners-up Kennie and Kennevic Asuncion, are seeing
action in the event, although majority will have to go
through the qualifiers set tomorrow.
Meanwhile, tickets to the five-day event are now on sale
at Ticketworld at the National Book Store outlets.
Tickets are pegged at P300, P200, P150, P100 and P50 in
the eliminations to quarterfinal stages.
Tickets
in the semis and finals are priced at P500, P400, P300,
P200 and P50.
The RP
Open will be shown live on Solar Sports and RPN-9
beginning with the semifinal round on July 21 and the
finals on July 22. The four-hour live telecast will
start at
2 p.m.
Solar
Sports will also broadcast an evening highlight program
from July 18 to 20 for the preliminary rounds where
around 78 players and 42 teams are vying for slots in
the main draw in five divisions.
Besides
the singles, doubles and mixed doubles titles, world
ranking points are also up for grabs in the RP Open,
backed by Victor, exclusively distributed by Pcome
Industrial Sales, Inc., Snickers, The Philippine Star,
Solar Sports (official broadcaster), Holiday Inn
Galleria Manila and The Richmonde (official hotels). |
