The biggest junior badminton tournament in the region comes to Kingston this weekend.
The Ocean Spray/Wata Pan American championship starts on Sunday, July 24, and while there is great optimism, there is still work pending.
The Jamaica Badminton Association is confident everything will be ready for the start of the tournament, despite a delay in laying the playing mats at the National Indoor Sports Centre.
Pan Am officials will conduct a final inspection of the facility on Saturday, July 23, and according to Vishu Tolan, the President of the Jamaica Badminton Association, everything should be in place by then.
"The readiness has nothing to do with organisation. We just got our mats yesterday for the National Indoor Sports Centre and those should be laid out tomorrow (Friday, July 22). I know we had a media walk through (scheduled) for tomorrow but that has been postponed until Saturday. As soon as the court is laid, then we’ll be about 85% (ready)," he said.
Ocean Spray/Wata, which will be title sponsors for the eight-day championship, handed over a cheque of $1 million to the association on Thursday, July 21.
They will also meet the hydration needs of the athletes from the 16 participating countries.
Two teams, Peru and Colombia have already arrived fro the tournament.
Others of the 15 visiting countries are expected to arrive by Tuesday, July 26.
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