From 3 to 8 September 2019, the last BEC umpire course of the year took place during the RSL Kharkiv International 2019.

National umpires from all around Europe got the opportunity to work on their theoretical and practical knowledge together with Christian Johannessen (BWF Certificated umpire and member of the BEC umpire assessment panel) who was very positive about the attitude of the candidates during the course:

- The whole group was very focused, all of them showed ability and willingness to listen to feedback and afterwards tried to implement the advices given.

Important to educate
Attending a BEC umpire course is part of the pathway for national umpires who would like to become BEC Accredited umpires. This year, three BEC umpire courses were organized in Latvia, Greece and Ukraine, a total of 25 umpires from 14 different Member Associations participated in the three courses.

- It is really important to educate and to coach the new international umpires in the BEC circuit towards the requested standard of international European umpiring. Every year, Europe was able to deliver the best umpires in the world, we must continue this way and ensure our future of umpires, Sven Serré (BEC umpire coordinator) stated.

- Therefore, we need a large influx of good umpires to cover all the umpiring needs, within the BEC circuits, but also towards BWF and without the work that the Member Associations are already doing in educating and motivating their umpires, it would not be possible.

If you are interested in umpiring and would like to get more information, please make sure to contact your national federation (all contacts can be found here).

More information about the procedures for education and upgrading of umpires can be found here.