THE Jamaica Badminton Association (JBA) has selected the team that will be participating in the Commonwealth Games that will be held in Glasgow, Scotland, from July 23 to August 3, 2014.

The team will comprise four key players, a coach and a manager. The players are Garron Palmer, Gareth Henry, Geordine Henry and Ruth Williams. The coach is Dr Kingsley Ford and the manager is Ricardo Teape.

These four players, who have already been training full time with the overall squad, now have to increase the intensity of their training to meet the standards and demands of the level tournament that they will be attending. The Commonwealth Games have top countries like Malaysia, England and host country Scotland and will be having both team and individual events. Badminton is one of the few sports that will run for the entire duration of the games.

The nation’s top players should compete well against the Commonwealth teams from the Pan American region, but will find the going tough when playing the Commonwealth countries from Europe, Asia and Oceania. The team will be leaving on July 19.

The JBA commended the Constant Spring Golf Club, which has given them preferred rates for technical training, Spartan Health Club, which has covered the athletes’ strength and aerobic training, and the Sports Development Foundation for continuing to support the administration and for providing shuttles for their loaded tournament schedule.