Seepaul seals badminton scholarship

TRINIDAD and Tobago badminton champions Anil Seepaul and Sabrina Cassie will get an opportunity to prepare themselves properly for the Pan-American Games, which is scheduled for Santo Domingo in August.

Having retained their respective Solo titles in impressive fashion, the Cri-Stars Badminton Club players will fly out today to Peru where they will participate in Peru Invitation Open Championships which usually attract the top racquet wielders from South America, Central America and the Caribbean region. The competition starts on Wednesday and will end on Saturday. The four-time national singles champion and the 2002 Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games bronze medallist is sponsored by the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee (TTOC) which negotiated a US $5,000 scholarship funding from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for his preparations for international competitions.

After the Peru Open Championships, the three-time triple crowned senior champion will remain in Peru where he will link up with Dutchman Tjitte Wiestra, a former top 20 world-ranked player, who will help guide the Trinidadian in his pursuit for greater honours at regional competitions. Following his stint with Wiestra, Seepaul will travel to Cuba where he will participate in Cuba Open Invitation Championships, carded from May 1 to 4. He will continue preparations and will link-up with Trinidadian Daron Charles who is on a Government-awarded scholarship at the Cuba Institute of Sports Technology. TT’s nine-time ladies singles champion Cassie is sponsored by Solo Beverages Limited. The company has been the major sponsor for all badminton tournaments, both the seniors and junior tournaments, for over two decades. Only on Thursday night, the nation’s top players stamped their supremacy at the Jean Pierre Complex, Mucurapo.