Badminton Asia, in conjunction with the recent 27th Iran Fajr International Challenge 2018, held its Asian Olympic Project (AOP) that involved 18 players and four coaches in the Zanjan City in Iran, 300km from the country's capital city Tehran.
The West Asia Regional AOP was a four nation affair – Iran, Iraq, Jordan and Syria and was attended by 10 boys and eight girls – and held at the Zanjan Badminton Federation Hall from Jan 26 to Feb 4.
The West Asia Regional AOP was jointly conducted by Badminton Asia's Development Officer Muhammad Andy Ardiansyah in collaboration with the Iran Badminton Federation.
The main objective of the eight day camp is to further train and prepare players to perform and improve their badminton in major competitions like the 27th Iran Fajr International Challenge from from Feb 5-8.
Training programs mainly focused on techniques, tactical (in a game situation) and also on the physical aspects like power, speed and agility.
The West Asia Regional AOP was two-fold – to prepare players for International tournaments apart from finding potential and talented players from the West Asia region.
"There is plenty of badminton talent in the region and some future badminton stars were seen in the participants who were aged between 15 to 20 years old," said Andy, who was assisted by West Asia Regional Officer from Iran Mr. Morteza Validarvi.
The training schedule consisted of two sessions per day. The morning session was from 8am to 11am while the afternoon session was from 3.30pm to 6pm.
During the camp all the participants stayed together at Zanjan Badminton Federation Hall. At their disposal were 10 badminton courts for use .
Among the AOP players from the West Asia region were Soraya Aghaei Hajiagha and Amir Jabbari (Iran); Ahmad Aljallad (Syria) and Bahaedeen Ahmad Alshannik (Jordan) who participated in the training camp.