Last week in Karlskrona, Sweden, alongside the European Badminton Championships was the first meeting of the newly created Women in Badminton Working Group. Indeed, after the first working group selected in 2010, 8 women have been selected to get involved in the promotion of women in the sport of Badminton for the 2 upcoming years.

The group members are:

Sigridur Bjarnadottir (Iceland)
Corina Dan (Romania - BE Director for Communication)
Kristiina Danskanen (Finland)
Ella Diehl (Russia)
Cheryl Evans (Ireland)
Isabelle Jobard (France)
Emma Mason (Scotland)
Christine Skropke (Germany)

The half-day meeting was attended by 4 of the women (Bjarnadottir - 4th from the right on the picture, Danskanen - 3rd from left, Evans - 2nd from left, and Jobard - 3rd from right) in addition to Badminton Europe’s Director for development Gregory Verpoorten (2nd from right) and Development Manager Marie-Anne Midy (1st from right).

The discussions used the report made by the previous working group to focus on producing an action plan over the year to come. The main decisions and outcomes where the creation of a “Woman in the Spotlight” article to be displayed on a regular basis on Badminton Europe’s website and a 2-page article to write for each of the Badminton Europe’s Online Magazine issue, the objective being to promote and advertise women involved in the sport, whereas they are players, administrator, coaches, officials, etc. In addition, Badminton Europe will look at the procedure to go through the IWG (International Working Group on Women and Sport) application.

The meeting concluded with a lunch where Badminton Europe’s President, Poul-Erik Høyer (1st from left), joined as well as guests and council members.

The working group is to meet next year around the same time, alongside Badminton Europe 2013 ADM.

For more information on the Women in Badminton programme, click here.
For more information on Badminton Europe’s Online Magazine, click here.
For more information on IWG, click here.