England’s Mariana Agathangelou remains focused to qualify for 2012 Olympic Games – Badminton news
England’s Women’s Doubles shuttler, Mariana Agathangelou remains focused to qualify for the 2012 Olympic Games.
She, with the partnership of Heather Olver, is determined to perform well and earn points in the upcoming events in the world of Badminton.
Mariana – Olver are placed at the 21st spot in the Women’s Doubles world rankings, which are conducted by the Badminton World Federation (BWF). They need to get into the top 16 to qualify for the London Olympics, which will take place next year
at Wembley Indoor Arena.
“Our whole season is geared towards cracking the top 16 and we need to select the tournaments very carefully to gain as many ranking points as possible,” said Mariana.
She further added, “Pretty much everything we do now is centred around the Olympics. It’s such a hyped-up event at the best of times but being in London, there’s even more pressure on us to perform.”
While talking about the training and upcoming events, Mariana said that she is not thinking about the training and tournaments, the major goal is to participate in the Olympics. The tournaments will serve as a preparation for that event.
Mariana will participate in the 2011 World Badminton Championship, which is going to be held in August at Wembley Indoor Arena, which is also the venue of the 2012 Olympic Games. The World Championships will be a good test for Mariana – Olver to prepare
for the Olympics.
Mariana said that the upcoming mega event in August will serve as a trial for the duo. If the pair delivers a good performance in this home event, then they will likely do the same in the Olympics.
“Home advantage is really big and the worlds this year will be a sort of a trial run for 2012 and we need to get used to everything at Wembley,” Mariana said.
Now it is the major task for Mariana – Olver to prove their worth in every event they play before the Olympics. These 12 months are very important for the duo as every event in this period will give them ranking points which will help them in getting into
the top 16 pairs of Women’s Doubles.
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