'Dream Come True' For Players As Badminton Makes Long-waited Paralympics Debut

Tokyo, Sept 1 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 1st Sep, 2021 ) :Badminton's Paralympics Games debut on Wednesday was hailed as a "dream come true" by players, 29 years after it became an Olympic sport.

Badminton was first played at the Olympic Games in Barcelona in 1992 and now 90 players will battle for medals in 14 events over five days at Tokyo's Yoyogi National Stadium in the inaugural Paralympics tournament.

"It's been a long, long time, 14 years for me actually," said 30-year-old British player Krysten Coombs, who has been involved from the fledgling days of the sport.

"I was at the first tournament back in 2008 that had short stature," added the men's SH6 category world number five.

"It's a dream come true and I can't wait to get started." The honour of the first match win in Paralympics history went to Germany's number three seed Valeska Knoblauch, who breezed past countrywoman Elke Rongen 21-7, 21-8 in the women's WH1 category.

"It feels pretty amazing," said Knoblauch, who also will go down as the player who hit the very first badminton serve in the Paralympics.

"I was very nervous. It's so different to other tournaments." The International Paralympic Committee finally recognised the Badminton World Federation (BWF) as a para sports organisation in 2015 and selected it for Olympics inclusion at Tokyo, four years after the BWF had integrated para badminton into its structures.

"It's been a long, long journey," BWF secretary general Thomas Lund told AFP soon after the first matches concluded.

"It's great after almost 10 years to be able to participate at the highest level that para sports can offer.

"After being involved in all the preparations for so long, it is always great to see the first shuttle fly into the air."