Badminton Scotland are urging fans to snap up the last remaining tickets for the TOTAL BWF Badminton World Championships in Glasgow with today marking one month to go until the globe’s finest players descend on the city.
The championships, which take place at the Emirates Arena from August 21 to 27, will see home stars including Olympian Kirsty Gilmour taking on the cream of the world’s elite over seven days of intense competition.
Team GB’s Rio 2016 Olympic bronze medallists Marcus Ellis and Chris Langridge will also be leading the domestic charge, while fellow Brit stars Chris and Gabby Adcock and European Champion Rajiv Ouseph will also be in medal contention in the mixed doubles and men’s singles respectively.
The most prestigious tournament in the sport with a stronger overall entry than the Olympic Games, this year’s event will see multiple Olympic, World, European and Commonwealth champions battling it out to land gold.
To highlight the landmark BADMINTONscotland have released a new promotional video and are urging fans to book their seats now, with season tickets and weekend passes already sold out.
“Our preparations are going to schedule and everyone is excited at the prospect of staging the best event ever,” said Anne Smillie, chief executive of BADMINTONscotland. “Just looking at the entry, I think we will see some of the most fantastic badminton ever seen. I can't wait for the athletes to arrive and the Championships to begin."
It is the third time that Glasgow has hosted the World Championships with the individual and team events taking place in the city in 1997 and the World Team Championships returning ten years later.
In addition to the championships, Badminton Scotland is running a number of legacy activities including the Big Hit Festivals which got underway in June 2016.
During the championships, the festivals will see sessions of two hours of badminton tuition in the centre of the velodrome available to youngsters followed by the chance to see the world’s best players in action.
The legacy initiatives hope to introduce 30,000 children to the sport.
“The Big Hit Festivals will help to raise awareness of the sport amongst school children in Scotland and translate that awareness into children picking up a racket and stepping onto court in future,” added Smillie
“It’s imperative that you use the staging of these major events to deliver investment into a better future for the sport and I am confident that, with the 2017 World Championships, we are grabbing every opportunity we can to promote long term interest in the sport.”
The TOTAL BWF World Championships 2017 will be staged at Glasgow’s Emirates Arena from 21-27 August.
It is being delivered by BADMINTONscotland in partnership with Glasgow Life and Glasgow City Council and with funding support from EventScotland and The National Lottery through UK Sport.
Press release by BADMINTONscotland, 21 July 2017