In October last year I was appointed a BWF International Line Judge for the 2025-2028 Period. My first duty was the Macau Open in August which I did ‘back to back’ with the British & Irish Para International in Cardiff, heading to Heathrow to catch my flight{s} to Macau immediately after the last finals and medal presentations!!
My second duty was the Yonex Sunrise World Junior Championships, held in Guwahati in India. I was selected for both the Individual AND Team competitions, meaning I would probably be Line Judging for 13 out of 14 days. In the pre-tournament info 3 x Polo Shirts and 2 x Tracksuit Bottoms were promised, so still managed to pack for ‘Hand Luggage Only’ for the four flights needed to get me there and back.
Setting off on Thursday 2nd October, my plan was to arrive two days early and just rest up/relax and then allow three days after the event for some ‘full on’ sight-seeing and also to experience and enjoy some of the big Diwali Festival celebrations, which would be taking place all over India on the days immediately after the Badminton had ended.
Outward flights routed via Delhi were fine and I arrived in Guwahati after some 20 hours travelling to be met at the Airport with a welcoming garland of flowers at the Tournament Welcome Desk. Then after a wait of some 20-30 minutes, off to the Five Star Arista Hotel, where all the Overseas Technical Officials, i.e. Umpires and Line Judges, were staying.
After the promised ‘restful’ day and a half to get over the jet lag and shock of the relentless 35 degrees heat, on Sunday afternoon it was time to head off to the National Centre of Excellence for a first look at the venue and to attend the TO’s Briefing, scheduled for 5PM. This involved a comfortable minibus ride of some 30-40 minutes to cover the 20kms to the other side of the city, across the scenic Brahmaputra River. Have to say, first impressions of the Sport hall were very good, with nine courts set out in a very large dedicated Badminton facility. As for the TO’s Briefing very interesting, especially in relation to the TWO NEW Scoring Systems that were being trialled at the event : A RELAY format of best of 3 Games to 45 Points in the TEAM event and best of 3 Games to 15 Points in the INDIVIDUAL event that followed in the second week.
And so to Monday 6th October and first up – the Team Competition. Early breakfast to make the first Line Judges Briefing at 8AM. Slight surprise on seeing the large number of local Indian LJ’s – at least 70!! – to work with the 10 BWF LJ’s who had flown in from literally all corners of the globe, i.e. USA, Iran, Iraq, Botswana, Australia, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Poland and the UK. These kind of numbers meant there was enough to have at least six LJ’s per court, all day and every day – nice!
Talking numbers it’s worth noting there were 36 Countries represented with a total of over 450 players. Early rounds were in a Group Format with 4 or 5 teams in each Group. Once play was underway, the new “Relay” Scoring took a little bit of getting use to but ultimately we were getting some very interesting and entertaining matches, with playing times of anything between under a hour of some of the easier ties, going on to well over 2 hours for some of the closer 3 setters.
China were the favourites, with Denmark, India and Indonesia also expected to do well so perhaps it was no surprise that on Saturday after 4 days playing that these were the four teams that made the semi-finals. At this point the arena had been transformed to just one show court and we went up to 8 LJ’s per court/match.
While most of the Teams had one or two coaches, China actually had 5 for their 22 strong squad, one for each of their MS, MD, LS, LD and XD players. The Men’s Singles coach was none other than ex-World Number 1 player Chen Long and it was a lovely moment for me when on the second day I found myself on Court 2, seated just a few feet away from him in his coaches chair
One talking point through the week was that many of the LJ’s on the Baseline position who were also Mopping the court were saying that it was getting really tiring having to mop up to 10 times in a set, i.e. at 5, 9, 14, 18, 23, 27, 32, 36, 41 and 45 {end of game}. The solution to this turned out to be a Line Judge Rotation System which meant that LJ’s on the Baseline swapped/moved to a different position at the end of each set to basically ‘give someone else a go’ …. something I personally haven’t done since the 2012 Olympic Games, as it’s generally not a popular system with many of the Umpires/Referees in terms of ‘presentation’. However, at this tournament they went along with the suggestions of our LJ Team Leaders and allowed it.
Finals Day on Saturday was between China and Indonesia and I was very pleased to be one of the Team of 10 LJ’s selected – 6 BWF + 4 Local – to be a part of what turned out to be a very exciting final with China winning 45-44 in two close sets. A very satisfying end to the first week!
Sunday 12th was down as a ‘Day Off’ with no play or meetings scheduled. There was a morning sight-seeing trip on offer for the overseas LJ’s and Umpires but I just fancied a ‘lazy day’ at the hotel, with a quick visit to the large Zoo and Botanical Gardens, just a short 10 minute WALK away.
And so to Monday 13th October and the first day of the second week of the Individual Competition and finally some Welsh Players to look out for, namely Isha Mekala and Mebel Mano Kurian. Sadly they couldn’t quite get through their early round matches but as both their coaches – namely Head of Performance, Graham Hurrell, and National Coach, Raj Popat – have alluded to, this was still a great experience for them to be able to experience and perform out on the world stage! I was also pleased that despite a pretty full on Line Judging schedule, during the week I managed to meet/bump into the guys on two occasions, and was able to wish them well
Nice ‘easy’ format for the Individual Event – starting with a notional Round of 128 on Monday, it went on through the week as follows : Tue, R64 : Wed, R32 : Thu, R16 : Fri, R8 {Quarter Finals} : Sat, Semi Finals : Sun, Finals Day.
Another ‘new’ scoring system on trial during the week : best of three {shorter} sets to 15, need to win by 2 clear points if 14-14, and a final deciding Game Point at 20-20 to win 21-20. Like the team event, big differences in shortest matches lasting under 15 minutes, with some going on to well over an hour but overall, most people seemed to view this scoring system for Junior Events positively.
Many good games during the week and again I was very happy to be selected to Line Judge one of the Individual Finals, which happened to be ‘Number 1’ for the Men’s Singles Final which again gave me the pleasure of sitting very close to Chen Long seated in the Coaches Chair who was also happy as his player beat his Indonesian opponent in straight sets!
Undoubtedly many of these players will be the Badminton Stars of the future! Which one{s} though – that’s the question but have to say it’s fun/interesting trying to speculate and work out who, lol?! One thing I would say is perhaps the biggest compliment I can give these players is that the high standard of play in many of the games meant I frequently ‘forgot’ I was watching junior players!
That’s the end of my report on the Badminton in India. As I mentioned earlier, I was very lucky that October 18th – 22nd were the dates of the big Diwali Festival in India and so had a lovely 2-3 days mooching about during the day time before enjoying some rather ‘crazy times’ at this ‘Festival of Lights’, including some very colourful and lively fireworks displays, happening all over the city.
Finally there’s also a connection to WINT happening in a few weeks time : USA Line Judge Jacky Myers was also in Guwahati. A few weeks before the tournament she told me she would also really like to Line Judge at the Welsh International and I put her in touch with Harriett to see if we could offer her an Invitation for this years event. We could and during our downtime at the World Juniors I helped her finalise her travel plans – so she’s definitely coming and WINT will have the benefit of 2 x BWF International Line Judges to bolster it’s already strong Technical Officials Team!!
And that’s about it! Feeling very privileged to be able to indulge my love of Badminton Line Judging at this high level and who knows maybe I’ll make it back to India for the World Championships being held in Delhi in August next year?