Brian Yang (CAN), 9th in MS Qualification and Fernanda Saponara (PER), 15th in WS Qualification are the Pan Am players best placed for the next Youth Olympic Games Buenos Aires 2018.
On May 10th, the qualifiers list was officially announced, in which Brian Yang (CAN) is the Pan American player best placed (position 9), followed by Fabricio Farias (BRA) in place 15, Alonso Medel (CHI) classification 23 and Uriel Canjura (ESA), place 26. In Women side, Fernanda Saponara (PER) reached the 15th place of qualification, while Jennie Gai (USA) is ranked 20th.
Brian Yang is a Canadian promise. He currently occupies place 14 in BWF Junior Ranking, reaching location 9 in the YOG standings. Brian is the last U19 Pan-American champion and has participated in the last Pan Am Championships reaching the 2018 Thomas Cup classification. He also won the gold medal at the Canadian Junior International 2018, XI Suriname International 2017 and IV Guatemala International Junior 2017.
Fernanda Saponara (PER), 25th in BWF Junior Ranking, has participated in several scoring tournaments to reach the Olympic Games qualification as the best in the region (15th in women classification). Saponara won gold medal in Carebaco International 2017 and was runner-up in Yonex Mexican International U19 2018, Junior Argentina International 2017, Suriname International, among others. In addition, Fernanda won gold medal in Youth South American Games Santiago 2017 and participated in several tournaments in Europe achieving good results.
Fabricio Farias, a Brazilian star in place 21 in BWF Junior Ranking. Farias reached qualification (15th place) after several months of competition. Among his best results are the gold medal at Yonex Mexican International U19 2018 and Argentina International 2018. Farias also participated in several tournaments in Europe such as the Yonex Dutch Junior 2018, Italian Junior 2018, Spanish Junior 2018, among others. In addition, he participated in the BWF World Junior Championships 2017 and the XXII Pan Am Individual Championships 2018.
Jennie Gai (USA) occupies the position 24 of the Ranking and achieved the qualification in place 20 thanks to her good results and the effort throughout this qualifying period, in wich she won gold medal in Yonex Mexican International U19 2018 and got important points in XXII Pan Am Individual Championships 2018, 2017 Yonex / K&D Graphics International Challenge, VIII Mexican International 2017 and XXVI Pan Am Junior Championships 2017.
Chile’s Alonso Medel is the youngest Pan Am player that will compete at Buenos Aires 2018. He is in place 40th of BWF Junior Ranking and reached the YOG qualification in 23rd position. Among the best results of Alonso are the silver medal in Argentina Junior International 2017 and the good scores reached in important tournaments such as the XXII Pan Am Individual Championships 2018, 33rd Brazil International Badminton Cup 2018, Guatemala Future Series 2017, among others.
Uriel Canjura from El Salvador is 35th in BWF Junior Ranking but he qualified to Youth Olympic Games 2018 in location 26. Uriel obtained important results in tournaments, being runner-up in Yonex Mexican International U19 2018, bronze in Victor Polish Junior 2018 and bronze in Guatemala International Junior 2017. He also scored important points in XXII Pan Am Individual Championships, Spanish Junior 2018, Swedish Junior 2018, among others.
The Youth Olympic Games Buenos Aires 2018 give 27 places for boys and 27 for girls, plus 2 quotas (1 Women and 1 Men) for Host Argentina, which will be confirmed until May 31, and 8 Universality Places (4 men and 4 women).
The Qualification was defined according to the BWF Junior Ranking on May 3, 2018, considering at least one qualifier by each BWF Continental Confederation. There can be a maximum of two by country if both are in the first 4 places of the Ranking, otherwise it only qualify the best located. In addition, there is a reserve list that will be used to modify the qualification list if the qualifiers participation is not confirmed.
Check here Qualification System.
Qualification period was from April 24, 2017 to April 29, 2018, in which, young athletes had the opportunity to participate in various scoring tournaments to reach a place in this mega sporting event that will take place in our region.
Check all Qualifiers in the following links:
MS Qualifiers – Youth Olympic Games 2018
WS Qualifiers – Youth Olympic Games 2018
