Badminton soars in Wales

Paul Dancey on 13/02/2012

The very latest Active Young People (AYP) for the autumn of 2011 shows that secondary school participation in Badminton has gone through the roof.

Figures for 2007 showed that there were approx 31,000 registrations all over Wales, this increased to 75,284 in 2008 culminating in a figure of 108,280 for 2011, an increase of 6.3% from the same period in 2010.

This statistic shows how successful Badminton Wales involvement has been with Wales local authorities over recent years, and also how popular Badminton can become when young people are given the chance to try it out.

It just might be that Badminton Wales have hooked a substantial number of young students into Badminton for life.

Chief Executive Eddie O Neill commented: "I am thrilled with these figures which demonstrate the effectiveness of Badminton Wales partnerships with so many Welsh local authorities and with Sport Wales. When we started in earnest our development into schools strategy, Badminton was in the LAPA of 5 authorities whereas from April this year, that number will have grown to 11. Most importantly we have provide a Sport Leader UK award which has helped the schools to deploy young people into coaching to help run 5x60 clubs and also celebrated the fact that in 2011, 106 secondary schools took part in our first ever National 5x60 schools tournament. This year we will also be focusing on engaging in a similar way with the primary school sector and have actually already trained 73 primary schoolteachers to deliver badminton in school time. I think the future is very bright for Badminton in Wales".

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