Badminton was recently named as one of the most popular sports taken up in the UK by 18-24-year-olds,, external boosting Britain’s hopes to match countries such as China, which has won more than half of the total gold medals since it became an Olympic sport.
“In Asia, it’s just part of their DNA, like football over here,” Ellis told BBC Sport. “Every child over here starts kicking a ball around, whereas they’ll pick a racket up and start hitting a shuttle.”
“It’s just getting the young people to pick up a racket sooner and almost see it as ‘this is what we want to do’,” added Vendy.
How does Olympic qualification work?
The All England Open is one of the final few events before the cut-off date of 28 April to gain points for the ‘Race To Paris’ ranking list, which will determine Olympic spots.
A total of 172 players will travel to Paris. There will be 35 men’s singles players and 35 women’s singles players, plus 16 doubles partnerships in each of the disciplines, plus places reserved for host country France and Universality places.