City badminton player takes family passion to the international stage
Times have changed since Jay Xuan Tan’s grandfather rallied on a badminton court.
The racquets were wooden, which Tan found interesting while flipping through old family photos of relatives playing the game.
The 15-year-old, born and raised in Christchurch, will take the family passion further than any of his parents or grandparents ever did when he competes internationally for the first time at the world world junior championships in Nanchang, China, next month.
He is the only member of his nine-person Kiwi team hailing from south of the Cook Strait, and the youngest, too.
“It’s pretty big, I think there’s around 40-50 countries from all over the world that compete,” he said, confessing to some nerves.
The competition will be off the back of a successful year for Tan, who won the “triple crown” at the under-19 Canterbury tournament in May earlier this year – a combination of winning the men’s singles, men’s doubles and mixed doubles events.
“You need fast reflexes, able to be light on your feet, and a little bit of strength,”
Tan said, describing what’s needed to succeed.
It’s a “fast-paced” sport that sees shuttlecocks whistle over a net, whacked by athletes in a similar fashion to a tennis match.
Tan was introduced to the game when he was nine by his parents. These days he finds it “too easy” to beat his father.
He trains four to five times a week under the watchful eye of Darshan Vernekar, head coach of the School of Badminton in Christchurch, and is a member of the badminton New Zealand under-19 performance squad.
There have been plenty of sausage sizzles, a Givealittle page set up and fundraising events to raise the $7000 needed to train and attend the competition in China.
Tan and his family are next hosting a mock world championship fundraising tournament at the end of this month that is open to all ages and abilities to pick a country and enter.
Tan also does some private coaching for pocket money and “to help get more players into the sport”.
Tan feels that although it’s a minority sport, since Wigram’s Badminton Centre opened in 2018, it’s gotten “bigger and bigger”.
The 2024 Badminton World Junior Championships start on September 30.