Maltese juniors for Cyprus tournament

Nigel Degaetano and Kyle Sciberras, two players from Badminton Malta’s Junior Academy, are travelling to Cyprus this week to take part in an U-17 international boys’ singles tournament, Badminton Malta said in a statement.

This tournament, to be played in Nicosia, will see the participation of 24 junior players who will be split into six groups of four players each.

At the end of the initial intra-group matches, which will be played on a round-robin basis, the six group winners and the best two runners-up will proceed to the second round. This will be played on a knock-out basis and will establish the eventual tournament winner.

The remaining 15 players will be involved in a separate singles event on a knock-out basis.

This competition is intended to give participants an opportunity to play as many matches as possible in order to gauge and hone their skills against foreign opposition, thereby motivating them to higher achievement.

The tournament format provides a minimum number of matches to each participant, who would otherwise tend to be demotivated if he/she were to be eliminated from the competition at a very first defeat.

The Maltese participants will be accompanied by John Attard, the general secretary of Badminton Malta, who was instrumental in securing this opportunity for Degaetano and Sciberras.

Both players have been preparing in earnest for this event.

Though they have already faced foreign opposition in Malta, this tournament in Cyprus will effectively be their first experience abroad.

Degaetano is the current U-13 national singles champion while Sciberras is the holder of the equivalent U-16 national title.

They are also the joint national U-16 doubles champions.