July 21, 2022
As part of World Badminton Day festivities, BWF took AirBadminton to the city of Hamburg, to celebrate the inaugural occasion with an AirBadminton Urban Series test event.
Competing in Germany’s north coast city as part of the Active City Arena Festival on 4-5 July 2022, national badminton teams from France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany participated in the World Badminton Day event with the sea as a backdrop, and sand for surface.
The two-day competition comprised of a mixed team event where the winner of a tie is the team reaching 100 points first over five games. Each tie consists of five matches – one women’s doubles, one men’s doubles, one mixed doubles, and two triples.
And finally, a mixed doubles event is the best of five games, with the first to eleven points.
Team Netherlands emerged victorious in the mixed team event. Finn Achthoven, 30, and Andy Buijk, 32, were extremely happy about their team’s achievement.
“It’s been great playing AirBadminton here in Hamburg and were are very happy to be the winners at the end of the day. The wind was challenging at some points during the game, but we managed to adapt and use it to our advantage, and we believe that was the key to winning the final. We look forward to competing in upcoming AirBadminton events as this is a lot of fun and an exciting way to play our sport.”
The AirBadminton Urban Series in Hamburg presented a unique opportunity to position AirBadminton as a young, innovative and urban sport, and the BWF is positive the event will inspire spectators and participants to look for opportunities to play AirBadminton beyond their experience in Hamburg.
The Hamburg event was open to the public. One spectator, Gisbert Benecke, remarked how much they enjoyed the sport.
“I haven’t seen anything like this before, playing badminton outdoors in a competitive form on the sand. It is pretty spectacular in terms of athleticism, the diving, the movements, and the easier rally situations due to the flight of the AirShuttle.”
AirBadminton takes an approach different from what most badminton fans might expect. The modified rules emphasise speed and outdoor dynamics transform the game into an entertaining spectacle for players and audiences.
Want to give AirBadminton a go yourself? Find out everything you need to know in our AirBadminton video, and on www.airbadminton.sport
The next stop on the AirBadminton Urban Series tour will be, Utrecht, in the Netherlands in September.
