BADMINTONscotland have received a bumper entry as the Scottish International Championships moves to its new Glasgow home, the Emirates Arena, from November 21-25. With three weeks to go to the start of the third oldest Open tournament in world badminton, the Championships attracted entries from 32 nations with all five continents represented.

The entry list includes 11 Commonwealth nations as players show their eagerness to play for the first time in the Arena which will host the Commonwealth Games badminton tournament at Glasgow 2014.

The Scotland challenge will be spearheaded by Yonex Scottish National singles champions Kirsty Gilmour and Kieran Merrilees as well as doubles stars Jillie Cooper, Robert Blair and Paul Van Rietvelde.

The Championships, one of the top events on the BADMINTON Europe circuit, will run over the usual five days and the renowned Play Badminton Carnivals will also take place alongside the Championships with 3,000 schoolchildren having the chance to get a first taste of badminton or gaining the opportunity to improve their game under the guidance of BADMINTONscotland’s coaching and development team.

Anne Smillie, Chief Executive of BADMINTONscotland, said: “The entry is really encouraging and reflects the interest in our great new Arena. We look forward, as ever, to welcoming players from all over the world and I am sure they will be impressed by the new Arena.”

The nations entered are: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Chinese-Taipei, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, India, Israel, Japan, Korea, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mauritius, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Philippines, Poland, Scotland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Wales.

Press release by BADMINTONscotland, Photo by BadmintonPhoto.