The international badminton competition went back to Italy after a two year break. The XIII edition of the Italian International kicked off yesterday in Rome with the qualification stage. 294 athletes from 37 countries will participate in the 15.000 Dollars event.
Among the international top players competing in Rome are Pablo Abian, Spain (n. 85 of the BWF rankings) and the new Spanish badminton star Carolina Marin (n. 18 of the BWF rankings). Ville Lång of Finland is the top seeded player in the men's singles. The Asian continent will be represented with a big number of athletes coming from Sri Lanka, Macao, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Local Italian players Giovanni Greco and Rosario Maddaloni, fresh medalists of the recently played tournaments (Gold medals in Porto Rico and Uganda, Silver medals in Suriname and Bronze medals in Brazil, Guatemala, Mexico and Suriname) will represent the Italian team together with Marco Mondavio, Pirmin Klotzner, Claudia Gruber, Karin Maran.
A National Clinic for Coaches, run by Technical Manager Arturo Ruiz and a National clinic for Referees will be also held alongside the Italian International.
Pupils from Rome and the Rome province schools will be attending the event. This promotional initiative is supported by MIUR - Ufficio Scolastico Regionale per il Lazio thanks to a fruitful cooperation with the Ministry of Education (MIUR) and the Italian Badminton Federation.
Check out the results of the 2013 Italian International.
Photo by BadmintonPhoto.