Leemisa Thuseho

THE Lesotho Badminton Association is a three-day strategic and operational planning workshop in Maseru to stimulate the growth of the sport.

The workshop started on Friday and is ending today.

The association’s interim president Moneoang Leshota said they are holding the workshop to plan how to develop the sport and grow its popularity in different parts of the country.

Leshota said the workshop is also expected to review the association’s constitution ahead of its constitutional elections to be held on a yet to be announced date.

“The Badminton World Federation last year released some funds to help national federations improve badminton in their respective countries, so we decided to use the money to develop our strategic plans for this year and review our constitution,” Leshota said.

The association’s target is to ensure that there are several competitions nationally while efforts are also being made to introduce the sport to the districts.

“Without competitions, there is not badminton and we are going to hold as many competitions as possible in the hope that we will end up assembling a national team.

“We are also looking forward to launching outdoor and para-badminton in Lesotho soon.”

Although badminton is not a new sport in Lesotho, the association only got Lesotho National Olympic Committee (LNOC) membership in 2019 and that of the Lesotho Sport and Recreation Commission (LSRC) last year. The association is also recognised by the World Badminton Federation.

Leshota said they have already trained badminton instructors and trained school teachers who will be instrumental in the association’s growth plan.

The teachers were trained under the World Federations programme called – Shuttle Time in 2018. The programme is aimed at making badminton one of the world’s most popular sports in schools.