PBaRS goes hi-tech with ID system

MANILA, Philippines - To uplift the level of Philippine badminton and keep it with the international standard, the Philippine Badminton Ranking System is implementing a proximity ID system designed to authenticate, verify and identify players in tournaments.

The just-concluded MVP Sports Foundation-Bingo Bonanza first leg of the PBaRS was actually the first-ever tournament to use the electronic player’s identification, giving the players easy access in list-up and the tournament a systematized way of validating hundreds of participants’ records and current status.

“One of the group’s objectives is to uplift the sports of badminton through improved and systematized way on a national scale with the new ID system,” said tournament director Nelson Asuncion. “By simply waving the ID in front of the reader, the setup serves as an authentication to registered players of the event.”

The PBaRS series of nationwide tournaments is a project of Vice President Jejomar Binay, Rep. Albee Benitez and businessman-sportsman Manny Pangilinan in their collective effort to bring the sport to a higher level and produce world-class players.

The ID system also aims to easily verify and identify players upon registration in tournaments, show current ranking status and their equivalent points garnered from series of events and significant information of each tournament.

“The new ID system is the first of its kind not only in Philippine badminton but in sports in general. And it is just the first step in the badminton system which we hope to improve,” said Asuncion.

Meanwhile, the MVP Sports Foundation-Bingo Bonanza PBaRS circuit will hold its second leg in Bacolod on May 31-June 5 to give the players in the provinces the chance to play in top-level tournament and at the same time discover and tap talents in the countryside.

Davao will host the third stage on July 31-Aug. 6 before the circuit, designed to come up with a truly national ranking system, winds up in the VP Grand Prix Badminton Open Championships on Oct. 22-29 in Manila.

The circuit offers big prizes with the winners in the Open class receiving P70,000 purse and the victors in the U-19 and U-15 divisions getting P20,000 and P10,000, respectively.

Other backers of the circuit are PLDT-Smart Foundation, Victor PCOME Industrial Sales, Gatorade and Powersmash with The Philippine STAR, TV5, Badminton Extreme Philippines Magazine, Jam 88.3, Wave 89.1, Magic 89.9, 99.5 RT and 103.5 WOW! as media partners. For details, contact 725-2568 or telefax 725-4942 or log on to www.pbars.com.