New Delhi: India’s Olympic medalist and IBL Icon Player Saina Nehwal launched the Indian Badminton League’s School Programme initiative – ‘Shuttle Express’ here today at the Genesis Global School, Noida.
The IBL is an initiative of the Badminton Association of India with Sporty Solutionz as the Commercial Partner. Genesis Global School is the IBL School Partner for the Delhi NCR leg and the school championship in the city is being held under the aegis of the Delhi Capital Badminton Association on July 13-14. An unprecedented number of students from 35 schools in the Delhi NCR will be vying for the titles in both the boys and girls singles categories in the city leg. The city winners will play the All-India Finals during the forthcoming IBL in August.
Speaking during the briefing, Olympic medalist and ‘Indian Shuttle Queen’ Saina Nehwal, said, “This is a great initiative by IBL to promote the game amongst youngsters and take the sport to the next level. Badminton is one of the most loved sports today and it’s important that children get the opportunity and platform to excel.”
Speaking on the occasion, Ashish Chadha, CEO, Sporty Solutionz, said, “The reason behind launching the Shuttle Express is to boost the young talent at grass root level. The overwhelming response from the schools and children gives us the confidence that Shuttle Express will give India its next champion shuttler. We take this opportunity to thank our IBL School Partner for Delhi leg Genesis Global School for their support for this initiative”.
Speaking on Shuttle Express, Badminton Association of India President & MP, Dr. Akhilesh Das Gupta, said, “It gives us immense joy and pride to introduce the IBL School Programme initiative – Shuttle Express, to lakhs of students across the country. We hope the effort taken by our badminton icons and stars to visit schools in six cities will inspire many youngsters to take up the sport.”
Speaking on Shuttle Express Gurbir Singh, Director – Sports & Estate, Genesis Global School said, “We are thrilled to be associated with this sports initiative by BAI and Sporty Solutionz. Genesis Global School has always promoted sports amongst its students and we are immensely proud to host the launch of the Shuttle Express in our campus with Saina Nehwal, and hope her presence will fire the imagination of our students and inspire them to achieve glory and excellence.”
With the launch in Delhi today, the Shuttle Express is all set to roll in Mumbai on July 15, followed by Hyderabad on July 16, Pune from July 17, Lucknow on July 19 and finally in Bangalore. Each city will witness matches being played over two days and the National finals will be held in Mumbai which will be beamed LIVE on TV from August 28-31, 2013, as part of the IBL. The Shuttle Express will offer an incentive of Rs 10 lakh in prize money to the National winners in both the boys and girls singles events. The finalists in both the categories will also be given an opportunity to train at the world-class Pullela Gopichand Academy.
Shuttle Express is being held in partnership with six schools in the six franchise cities as “IBL School Partners” – Genesis Global School, Expressway (Delhi NCR), Indus World School (Hyderabad), La Martiniere Boys (Lucknow), Jamnabai Narsee, Vile Parle (Mumbai), Symbiosis Primary & Secondary School (Pune) and Jain International School (Bangalore). Badminton icons like Olympic medalist Saina Nehwal, former All-England champion Pullela Gopichand, CWG doubles gold medalist Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa, India Grand Prix winner Parupalli Kashyap and Malaysian Grand Prix champion PV Sindhu will visit schools to encourage the participants in all 6 cities.
The path-breaking IBL will be held in six cities from August 14-31. The richest badminton league in the world will feature almost all the top-50 players in the world and will be played under the Sudirman Cup format and televised LIVE to more than 100 countries.
