Tbilisi, Georgia hosted a Badminton Europe Regional Project from July 3-9, 2016. 21 players and three coaches, and two sparring partners participated; six players and a sparring partner from Armenia, six players from Greece, and Georgia, the host country, had nine players and one sparring partner.  The three coaches originated from each country.

The scheduled program was implemented well and both neighboring countries to Georgia provided joint training with the athletes. The coaches shared mutual experiences and got acquainted with modern and leading countries’ experience, by reviewing video material, for them to carry out appropriate techniques in their own practices, and to raise the technical and tactical level of their players. All of this gave very positive results, as it influenced a further qualification of their athletes for the future.

During the free time the training teams had a good opportunity to visit some cultural and historical sights of Georgia as well. Teams gained new knowledge which was beneficial for all participants’ capacity and team work building.

The general evaluation of the project was ‘satisfactory’, the personal statements below confirm this assumption and explain the why and how that came to be.

Armenia's Head Coach, Hrachya Poghosyan:
The Regional Project 2016 was held in Tbilisi, Georgia from July 03 – 09. It was held according to the regulations presented by Badminton Europe Confederation. Players from Armenia, Georgia and Greece participated in the Regional Project. The aim was to organize trainings including footwork, technical and tactical on court practices. We were able to reach our goals. In addition, the spare time was spent by visiting a park, a bowling center, church Mskheta, which is the source of Christianity.  The trainings were organized twice a day in the training hall of the Medical University. Badminton Federation of Armenia in grateful to Badminton Europe Confederation and Georgian National Badminton Federation for organizing this Regional Project in a high level.

Greece's coach Elgkouta Lamprianidis:
I want to thank the European Confederation of regional projects and the host country Georgia, which welcomed us and used all efforts to ensure our children and their successful participation in the event. We are very satisfied with the time spend together, which was used in a very efficient way. We will be happy to come again to a similar event and we hope that similar projects with our neighbors will be repeated in the future. We already discussed the project plan for the future, where we will invite other countries with more experienced teams. All the neighbor countries are in need for such friendship and sport development events!

Georgian Head Coach Svetlana Vartanian:
Thank you for such a good project: We, the coaches and sportsmen, shared our experience with each other, which led to a positive result. Teams received a very good experience and all of us are better prepared for future competition and have increased our capacity. The event was very well organized including the physical training. Thanks again for helping us helping others!

At the end of the event, participants agreed increase the scale of objectives for a similar event in the fore coming future.

Once again all participants were grateful for the financial support of the project and believe in the future progress of similar activities for the development of badminton worldwide.