Sharjah 2019: Badminton to begin

Top quality table tennis and badminton players will share a sports hall at the 2019 International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports Federation (IWAS) World Games in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (UAE), as competition heads to the American University of Sharjah.

Badminton will run from 13-15 February, while table tennis will take place from 14-15 February.

Badminton

Two Indian athletes highlight the entries as badminton prepares to make its Paralympic debut at Tokyo 2020.

Pramod Bhagat, the top men’s singles SL3 player in the world, enters Sharjah 2019 off the back of several strong performances in the last year. That includes gold at the 2018 Asian Para Games in October.

His teammate Parul Parmar is also the world No. 1 in the women’s singles SL3. Parmar too excelled at the Asian Para Games, clinching wins in the singles and doubles.

Table tennis

A number of top-ranked players will take to the table at the World Games.

Host country the UAE are the favourites to take gold in the men’s standing as World No. 1 Yousuf Alkaabi lines-up.

Thailand’s Teeradech Klangmanee is the world No. 3 in the men’s wheelchair division and Hungary’s Endre Major is the second-best men’s class 1 player in the world right now.

Expect some good performances from these high-quality players.

More than 500 athletes from 45 countries will compete at the IWAS World Games 2019 in archery, athletics, badminton, shooting, swimming, table tennis and wheelchair fencing.

Most competitions will be sanctioned by the relevant International Federation and in some cases results will go towards the all-important world rankings which feed into Tokyo 2020 qualification.

Results will be available each day at the IWAS website.