PBad reveals Inter-Collegiate competition

Jude Turcuato (SMART/MVPSF), Christopher Quimpo (PBad), Imee Moreno, and Melvin Nubla (SMART)

The Philippine Badminton Association (PBAD) is organizing a tournament to help collegiate teams with preparations for their respective leagues.

Called the Philippine Intercollegiate Badminton Championships, co-presented by SMART and supported by the MVP Sports Foundation, it will take place on September 10-11 at the courts of Centro Atletico in Quezon City.

Unveiled on Wednesday at the Greenhills branch of Gloria Maris in San Juan, the announcement was graced by the presence of federation officials, led by Secretary-General Christopher Quimpo and Vice President Jude Turcuato, who also is the PLDT/SMART Head of Sports and the MVP Sports Foundation Executive Director. SMART Communications FVP for Go-to-Market Melvin Nubla was also present.

PIBC Project Director Imee Moreno shares, "The main objective of this tournament is to give another avenue for our athletes at our collegiate level." The councilor from Cagayan de Oro adds, "As we all know here in the Philippines there are very few avenues... that can serve as their training ground."

Nubla shares, "SMART is here to support the initiatives of PBAD especially since we started already with Badminton Asia a few months ago."

He also notes, "With the opening of the classes also happening, we decided to really work with PBAD to have a preseason badminton tournament."

Eight schools are expected to participate, with the team format to be applied within five divisions: men's and women's singles, men's and women's doubles, and mixed doubles. The champion receives PhP 50,000, with the runner-up netting PhP 20,000. The losing semifinalists will receive PhP 10,000.

To encourage participation for the inaugural edition of this potentially annual event, the federation has waived fees.

Holding the PIBC will kickstart PBAD's activities to boost competition in the sport back to pre-pandemic levels, especially after the recent Badminton Asia Championships this past April. In addition, Turcuato is looking at this event to establish the national badminton rankings, as a means to get to help get our local players the necessary points to play in major competitions with the end goal of Olympic participation.