Badminton Wales is delighted to welcome Chris Rees as Badminton Wales Performance Coach from the 1 August 2020.
Chris began his love for badminton at an early age and went on to become one of Badminton Wales Legends of the court. As a player, he gained European success winning the boys' doubles title at the European Junior Champions in 1983 with partner Lyndon Williams, and the pair then won men’s doubles bronze at the European Championships in 1988. Claiming 23 Welsh National Championship titles, 130 international caps for Wales at European and World Championships as well as three Commonwealth Games (1986, 1990, 1994) and reaching a career-high as world number 12.
He retired from competitive sport and turned his focus to coaching where he continued to strive for titles in a coaching capacity. Chris became National Coach in 1997 and lead Team Wales to Kuala Lumpur 1998 and Manchester 2002 where Wales secured their first Commonwealth Medal - gold in the women’s singles at the 1998 Games and a Commonwealth bronze medal in the men’s singles in 2002. In 2000, Chris was a vital part of the GB Olympic coaching team as GB singles coach. The Sydney 2000 Games included GB number one men’s and women’s singles players who were both Welsh, both achieving success on the world stage and both coached by Chris. During his period as national coach, badminton in Wales was at an all-time high with the Welsh flag being flown high on the world rankings in all five disciplines - including our CEO, Kelly Aston (nee Morgan) who achieved a world ranking of five, and Richard Vaughan who achieved a world ranking of seven and is the current Chair of High Performance and Non-Executive Director of Badminton Europe.
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Since September 2019, Chris Rees has been working with Badminton Wales on a consultancy basis and was an integral part of getting the Welsh senior team back on the international stage at the European Men’s and Women’s Team Championship in February 2020. Chris has already had a huge impact on the players and we are incredibly excited to see the team progress under his guidance over the coming years as we look forward to the European Mixed Team Event and seeing our Welsh players flying the flag at international team competitions and on the individual circuit.
Pob lwc (Best of luck), Chris, and welcome to the team!