The Special Olympics organized their very first Regional Badminton Seminar in Brøndby, Denmark from the 10th-13th of April. To top this, it was also the first time in 48 years of Special Olympics history that the Special Olympics Europe and Eurasia´s (SOEE) recent seminar for badminton coaches was strongly supported by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) and Badminton Europe (BEC).

Joann Hughes who is one of BWF´s top trainer conducted the sessions with sixteen coaches from across the continent. The coaches received Shuttle Time resources and coach education materials from the BWF´s Development Department.

“Participants got the most professional course and they were given memory sticks with all the course materials. We are very thankful for BWF’s support. We really appreciated having BWF President, Mr. Poul-Erik Høyer, with us for the practical segment and we were also greatly supported by the European Confederation (BEC) represented by its Secretary General, Brian Agerbak and other officials.” said SOEE Sports Director, Mariusz Damentko.

The seminar took place followed by the signing of Partnership Agreement between SOEE and BEC in Leuven, Belgium in February 2015.

“This partnership is one which we are very excited about and committed to,” said Badminton Europe President, Gregory Verpoorten. “Our aim is to help provide more opportunities in the sport of badminton for people with intellectual disabilities across Europe. We will provide all the support necessary and our expertise to Special Olympics so together we can develop the wonderful sport of badminton.”

Mariusz Damentko also thanked Special Olympics Denmark and Badminton Denmark for providing all the necessary sports equipment for the seminar. The sixteen Head Coaches who took part in the seminar were from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Hungary, Isle of Man, Ireland, GB, Germany, Latvia, Russia and Netherlands.

Also present from the BEC office were the Development Manager, Jeroen van Dijk and Zsofia Horvath, the Development/Events Assistant.