It is shaping up to be a busy few weeks for the island’s badminton players.

More than 70 young players will compete in the second national championships at Somersfield Academy this weekend with singles and doubles competitions taking place in the under-12 through under-18 age groups.

The first Bermuda junior badminton team has also been established with a group competing overseas in Canada from October 23 to 26. Ten players from the ages of 12 to 16 will compete in the Victor Ontario Junior Tournament playing singles and doubles.

Emmalyn Tothong, Kate Pursell, JitHom Liew and James Bigley will represent Bermuda at under-15 level, with Michael Mohipp, Finn Peters, Cora DeSilva and Sophie McClure playing in the under-17 event. Aaron Lee and Joseph Lau will compete in the under-19 competition.

The advances in competition come as a result of coaches Emma Moran-Lee and Aaron Simmons forming the Bermuda National Junior Badminton Association.

Simmons and Moran-Lee are Bermuda’s No 1 singles players, representing the island at the Island Games since 2019 and regularly competing overseas in Britain, the United States and Canada.

Moran-Lee started playing at age 11 years old in England as a junior was on the England B team and played at county level for the Suffolk and Middlesex first teams from the age of 12 to masters.

Simmons, a Bermudian, started playing at age 9 and has been coached by former national champion Harold Minors, Mark Hugen and Daniel Hughes. He is working with the Office of Youth Affairs and coaching primary school teachers across the island to enable them to start delivering badminton on their curriculum and into afterschool programmes.

The two players have held coaching sessions for the top players on the island since 2021, developing shot play, footwork and tactics across singles, doubles and mixed doubles, with the aim to raise the standard of play across the island and create more opportunities for badminton players to compete and develop.

Three players within the programme — Satya Darrell, Somers Stevenson and Dezirae Darrell — have progressed to represent Bermuda at the Island Games in Guernsey in 2023 and in Orkney this year.