Collegiate stars take spotlight in JVC Open

JVC, sustaining the gains it made through its staging of the JVC Open, is putting up another badminton tournament, this time featuring teams from the top colleges and universities in the country in the JVC Interscholastic Championships slated Nov. 17-23 at the PowerSmash Badminton Center and Glorietta Activity Center.

The team event, capping a year-long competition in the most popular sport in the land today, is open to all schools, including those in the secondary level, with P50,000 up for grabs in the college division and P20,000 staked as top purse in high school play.

Registration is free and is ongoing, according to the organizing IMG. Entry forms are available on the website, www.jvcbadminton.com, and at Unit 1411 Cityland Herrera Tower, Herrera cor. Valero Sts., Salcedo Village, Makati City, and at Asuncion Badminton Center, No. 20 E. Maclang cor. P. Guevarra Sts., San Juan, Metro Manila.

"We want to give the high school and collegiate players a venue of their own where they can hone their talent and skills. At the same time, we hope to be instrumental in tapping and finding the best badminton players from the ranks," said JVC (PHILS.), Inc. president Hideyuki Takato.

UST, last year’s men’s class winner, is fancied to lead the crack roster of teams chasing the top purse along with Ateneo, La Salle and FEU. Poveda and Arellano gun for back-to-back victories in high school play.

To accommodate the expected big number of entries, IMG will hold a four-day qualifying round beginning Nov. 17 at the PowerSmash Badminton Center on Pasong Tamo. The qualifiers battle it out for top honors starting Nov. 21 at the Glorietta.

Events on tap in the men’s and women’s divisions are first singles, doubles and second singles. Each team is allowed to field 4-6 players. Players must be registered students of their respective schools with four to compose each squad per event. A player can play in only one event per team tie while a school can register only one team per event. The high school category is for players 18 and below while those 23-years-old and under will compose the college division.

To further drum up interest in the tournament, backed by Planet Sports, Bingo Bonanza, L Timestudio, Bacchus, Rudy Project, Lactacyd, Alaska, Gillette, Sunbolt, Coffee House, Accel, Ayala Center, PhilStar, PowerSmash, Solar Sports, IMG, PBA, POC, PSC, a cheering competition will be held Nov. 23, also at Glorietta.