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Badminton world champion joins coaching team

World number twenty-six Women's Doubles player, Setyana Mapasa

Meriden’s Badminton players will be led by a stellar coaching line-up in Term 3, including the Australian Women’s Doubles player who has qualified for the 2021 Olympic Games, Setyana Mapasa.

Coach Setyana is currently world number twenty-six in Women’s Doubles and has been playing Badminton professionally since the age of thirteen. Over the past two years, as one half of a doubles team, she has taken the top prize at an array of events, including the Oceania Championship in 2019 and 2020, USA Open 2019, Nepal Open 2019 and Canada Open 2019.

Also on the coaching staff this term are champion professional players Lukas Defolky, Tiffany Ho and Jodee Vega, who bring skills and experience gained at many national and international tournaments.

Coach Setyana said Meriden’s Badminton team is brimming with potential.

“The major strengths of Meriden’s players are their willingness to learn and their desire to work hard to become the players they aspire to be,” she said.

“The high-performance training we have already begun with the girls, teamed with their natural drive to succeed, will make them formidable opponents on the court.”

Following the cancellation of competitive sport in Term 2, Meriden’s coaching team hopes the School’s players can pick up where they left off in Term 1, when they were dominating their invitational competition before it was cut short due to the global pandemic.

Coach Tiffany Ho, who is currently ranked 184th worldwide in Women’s Singles, said the Meriden players know how to balance their on-court objectives.

“The girls are driven by their love of the sport and their intrinsic motivation makes training and games a lot of fun for both players and coaches,” she said.

“At the same time, the players are always inquisitive about new skills and their willingness to ask questions means they get the most out of our experienced coaching staff.”

Badminton is the School’s fastest-growing sport, having launched in 2017 with sixty-five players, it now caters for one hundred and twenty-five players of all levels of ability.

The Meriden community wishes its Badminton players the very best as they kick off the 2020 season under the tutelage of their experienced and dedicated coaches.

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