The British Olympic badminton team, including Gail Emms and Donna Kellogg, will be available at the NIA, Birmingham, on Wednesday, July 23.
This will be the final opportunity for the media to interview, film and photograph the Badminton players ahead of competition in Beijing.
TIMING: 11.15am – access for photographers and TV crews only to end of morning session, involving doubles players in mixed doubles action. Women’s Singles representative Tracey Hallam will be practising on an adjacent court.
12noon – Photocall
12.30pm – Interviews
1.45pm – End of media session
WHERE: The NIA, King Edwards Road, Birmingham B1 2AA
WHO: Tracey Hallam
Nathan Robertson
Anthony Clark
Gail Emms
Donna Kellogg
Team Leader Andy Wood
England National Head Coach Ian Wright.
(Andrew Smith, is training abroad)
RSVP: Please confirm attendance with Adrian Hill (07500 331816) by 20 July or William Kings (07787 515353) from 20 July onwards. William Kings will be there on the day to greet you and supervise interview requests.
The session will have to run to timetable because the players have an afternoon session of matches to follow and it is essential that the media session does not over-run. Lengthy one on ones will not be possible because of the tight schedule but there will be opportunity to move from one player or coach to another for interviews.
CAR PARKING:
Parking is available in the multi-storey at the NIA on a pay-and-display basis.
Key dates:
The seeds for the Olympic Games will be confirmed on Thursday 24 July (they are based on the world rankings of 1 May – see www.worldbadminton.net ). There will be eight seeds in singles events and four in doubles.
The draw will be on Saturday 26 July.
Leave for Macau holding camp in Macau: 28 July – 5 Aug
The Olympic Badminton will be 9-17 August
Games record:
For Robertson and Kellogg, Beijing will be their third Olympic Games.
Men’s singles player Smith (Portsmouth), the youngest member of the squad at 24, will be competing in his first Olympics.
Player credentials:
Robertson and Emms are Olympic silver and Commonwealth gold medallists, 2006 world and 2004 European champions in mixed doubles.
Hallam is Commonwealth women’s singles gold medalllist.
Clark and Kellogg are the European mixed doubles champions and were 2006 world runners-up.
Emms and Kellogg were the 2006 European champions and 2008 silver medallists in women’s doubles.
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