Europe’s top SU5 women’s singles player Cathrine Rosengren has her sights set on world number 1 Ayako Suzuki at this week’s Canada International.

The first Canada Para-Badminton International gets underway this week in Ottawa, and one player in particular will be using it as a bench-mark for her progress towards next year’s Paralympic Games in Tokyo.

Cathrine Rosengren has made a solid start to her Paralympic Qualifying campaign. The 2019 calendar started just 6 weeks ago in Turkey where the Dane earned her first ranking points on that road to a Tokyo 2020 dream. 

Silver in the SU5 women’s singles, in a field that included Japan’s World Champion Ayako Suzuki and both of China’s top female SU5s. Rosengren really earned her stripes that week, beating Li Tongtong in a close 3 game semi-final followed by a close 3 game defeat the final to Yang Qiuxia who had confidently despatched Suzuki herself in the semis. These four women set the bar very high.

That silver medal was followed up by a bronze in Dubai the following week, Qiuxia getting the better of the European Champion in the semis this time, and beating Suzuki in the final to make two wins from 2 events for the Chinese. 

With the absence of the Chinese in Canada this week, the pressure is on Suzuki and Rosengren for a first win of the season and crucial Paralympic ranking points.

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“I’m can’t wait to start playing here on Tuesday and really hope I get a chance to play against Suzuki this time. Our last match was at the (2017) world championships where I lost (22-24, 17-21) so it would be really nice to see where I am compared to her now.”

“I’m really satisfied with my results in Turkey and Dubai. The things I’ve been working on in training are starting to make sense and I can see the improvements”

“I just want to get the best results I can this year, it’s so important to qualify for the Paralympics that I stay in the top 3 in the world, and I’d like to defend my bronze from the world championships this August.. though it would be great to get to the final this year”

“I’m taking a couple years from studying, to train for the Paralympics and make the qualification this year. So I’m just working and training and will come back to studies after Tokyo if I can get there.”

“I have great support from work to help me train and great friends at my new badminton club which is great, having friends that also play at a high level makes life easier. We all understand what it takes to live this way, sacrificing training and competing over parts of a normal social life”

READ: more about Cathrine Rosengren in the BEC 2017 magazine article here

The Canada Para-Badminton International 2019 begins on Tuesday this week. Look out for updates and results each day on tournament software here.