England Withdraw, Wales, and Scotland stay!

Aug. 10, 2009 - PRLog -- England quit, Wales and Scotland stay!

The England team has withdrawn from the World Badminton Championships in India because of an alleged " specific terrorist threat" made by extremists.
The BWF team was led by COO Thomas Lund, who told the reporters, “We are happy with the security arrangements. We are confident that the championship will take place smoothly on schedule.”
Lund also said that BWF was “unhappy” with the turn of events.
The eight-strong squad pulled out of the tournament, which starts on Monday in Hyderabad, after reports of threats by Muslim extremists Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Badminton England chief executive Adrian Christy said it was "an incredibly tough decision".
Badminton Scotland said its players will stay and compete.
Mr Christy said: "After the Olympic Games, this is the most prestigious championships in the world but we were not prepared to risk the safety of our players, coaches and staff in what we felt could have been a very volatile environment."
After taking advice from the Foreign Office and British High Commission, the conclusion made by Badminton England was "that safety is of paramount importance," he added.
Performance director Ian Moss
Badminton Wales have three players at the championships Richard Vaughan, Sarah Thomas, and Rachel Thomas all from the RVBA support by Memory Lane Cakes. Badminton Scotland has two singles players in the tournament - Susan Egelstaff and Alistair Casey.
The Foreign Office and Department for Culture, Media and Sport had earlier issued a statement saying: "The British High Commission had been in close contact with the Indian authorities which gave assurances that the highest level of security was in place around the Badminton World Championships."

RVBA Head player/coach Richard Vaughan who has decided to stay in India commented “I don’t quite understand where all this has come from. I spoke to the UK embassy last week who said it was a stable situation in India currently. The tournament officials have had no warning of new trouble from the British embassy in India. We are all aware of recent events here, and the independence day coming up but nothing has altered the past days. It seems extremely poor timing for England to make such a decision. Of course its caused a lot of concern at home, it all seems a little needless based on the real facts. If Badminton England were concerned they should have withdrawn before travelling.”

Play starts tomorrow morning, with the first Badminton Wales match on Tuesday With Richard Vaughan and Sarah Thomas playing the Mixed doubles against the 5th seeded pair Laybourn and Juhle from Denmark.

***Richard Vaughan Badminton Academy | RVBA***
The RVBA supported by Memory Lane Cakes is an elite group of young aspiring Olympic Badminton players coached by former World No 7 Richard Vaughan from Cardiff, Wales.
The RVBA is directed by Double Olympian and former World No7 Richard Vaughan from Wales. Richard is supported by former Irish Olympic Coach Donal O Halloran, former World No32 Dr Piret Hamer, and former top British junior Liam Ingram. Top Sports Physio Leon Vaughan provides physio support.
RVBA players Tim Stranks, and Sarah Thomas won the British u17 badminton singles titles in 2009.
The RVBA is proudly supported by Memory Lane Cakes and Accounting Software Direct and would like to thank both for their continued support. Additionally the RVBA has established numerous partnerships with Caerphilly County Borough Council, Physio4Motion, Catalan Badminton Association and others which have enabled the RVBA players to benefit from numerous opportunities. The Cardiff 10kmis a regular RVBA (Memory Lane Cakes) fund raising event for various charities including the RVBA Official Charity, the World Wildlife Foundation.
www.rvba.co.uk  & www.richardvaughan.net

# # #

***Richard Vaughan Badminton Academy | RVBA***
The RVBA supported by Memory Lane Cakes is an elite group of young aspiring Olympic Badminton players coached by former World No 7 Richard Vaughan from Cardiff, Wales.
The RVBA is directed by Double Olympian and former World No7 Richard Vaughan from Wales. Richard is supported by former Irish Olympic Coach Donal O Halloran, former World No32 Dr Piret Hamer, and former top British junior Liam Ingram. Top Sports Physio Leon Vaughan provides physio support.
RVBA players Tim Stranks, and Sarah Thomas won the British u17 badminton singles titles in 2009.
The RVBA is proudly supported by Memory Lane Cakes and Accounting Software Direct. Additionally the RVBA has established numerous partnerships with Physio4Motion. The Cardiff 10kmis a regular RVBA (Memory Lane Cakes) fund raising event for various charities including the RVBA Official Charity, the World Wildlife Foundation.