The BEC's Women in Badminton working group announced the nominees for the 2014 BEC Women in Badminton Awards. For the Women in Badminton "Person of the year" Award, Pi Hongyan (France), Ella Diehl (Russia), Athanasia Giakouvaki (Greece) and Anu Nieminen (Finland) were nominated. Former international top player Nora Perry, England was last year's winner (pictured here with Women in Badminton working group chair Emma Mason).

"I was very pleased that this year we had an increased number of nominations for the WIB Person of the Year award. I believe this shows an increasing awareness of the work that is being done by individuals within their Member Associations to further the development of women within Europe. However, I would like to remind Member Associations that there is also an award available for Project of the Year that gives Badminton Europe's recognition to a project that in the previous year significantly contributed to the development of women within Europe. I am aware that there were a number of these worthy projects that ran last year which could have been nominated and I do hope that Member Associations will take up the opportunity to be congratulated for their hard work in next year's additions. On behalf of the WIB I would like to congratulate all those persons who were nominated for WIB Person of the Year and of course I look forward to the unveiling of the winner at the BEC Gala Dinner in Paris." says Emma Mason, Chair of the WiB working group.

The Person of the Year Award encourages Member Associations to recognise a personality who has over the years helped strengthen the position of women in badminton. With a much higher number of men in our sport at the coaching, technical official and management levels there is a clear need to encourage women to take up a more active role in the workings of badminton in Europe.

The objective of the awards is to give international recognition to any person, whether individual or body corporate, who has contributed significantly, outstandingly and positively to the promotion, development and advancement of women in badminton and/or any badminton–related activities in Europe. At the same time, the nominations and the awards are also a way to communicate what the Member Associations have been working on regarding the promotion of women in badminton.

The winners will be announced at the 3rd BEC Awards Gala being held Saturday, 18 April 2015 in Paris, France.

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