PAUL LE TOCQ is not expecting to hold on to his Guernsey Open singles crown. The badminton development officer won a thrilling battle in last year’s final against Warwickshire’s Mark Sellwood in just over one-and-a-half hours.
But the man who represented Guernsey at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne last year does not hold out much hope this time around.
‘At the event last year, I had just come off training for Melbourne and since the Commonwealth Games, I’ve done very little.
‘My time now is given totally to the players over here and the development job.
‘To be honest, I wasn’t even sure if I was going to play this year and it will be the first time that I will have gone into something without having set myself any targets or objectives. It will very be interesting.
‘I’ve done barely anything in six months. I’ve gone down from 12 sessions of two hours a week to just one session a week for one hour.’
Le Tocq expects last year’s beaten finalist Sellwood and Hampshire’s Mark Ashton, whom Le Tocq beat in one of last year’s semi-finals to be the favourites.
‘They’re both in full-time training and they will be hard to beat.’
This year’s open has attracted approximately 170 entries, of whom 125 will be visiting players.
‘It’s an awesome entry for Guernsey badminton.
‘There’s only five or six coming from Jersey, but the vast amount are from the UK.
‘We have players coming from as far as the north of Scotland. Clearly the message about the tournament has travelled.
‘People know that when they get here they are going to get competitive matches, but that they will also enjoy themselves because the weekend has a friendly atmosphere. We seem to have found the right balance, which people like.’
Other notable entries include the doubles pairing of Chris Evans and Adam Smith, and Ian Sullivan, who used to be Olympic silver medallist Gail Emms’s partner before Nathan Robertson.
Next weekend’s open will for the first time be using the ‘rally points’ scoring system. It means matches will be shorter and the order of play will not be hampered. Le Tocq believes it will make the running of the tournament much smoother.
‘For example, our final last year, which lasted about an hour-and-a-half, would have lasted no longer than an hour.’
Article posted on 31st March, 2007 - 12.00am
Loading ...
Most Commented: