HAVING two players with the potential to qualify for the 2012 London Olympic Games and putting all the resources in place to ensure that that happens is the main item on the agenda for the Jamaica Badminton Association (JBA) as the local sports governing body approaches the new year.

Charles Pyne and Gareth Henry have been having an upswing in their game and both players have been steadily moving up the world badminton rankings in 2011.

Pyne won a bronze medal in the men’s singles at the 16th Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico in October and went as high as 109 on the world rankings, while Henry is currently in Canada on an Olympic Solidarity scholarship and earlier this year achieved his highest world ranking of 156.

“The first four or five months will go towards them. Hopefully in the next two months they’ll get enough points for at least one of the two to qualify. That’s why you would have been seeing badminton a little over the last three months because we have been focusing on it,” JBA president Vishu Tolan told the Observer in a recent interview.

The success of the pair has earned them a lot of local media attention as well: “The guys are performing very well and we all know that we all love winners and as long as we are out there competing good we all want to listen to and write the story,” he explained.

Added Tolan: “We’ve never had any men qualifying for the Olympics (and) Charles won a bronze at the Pan Am Games. That was also a high for us because we’ve never had that performance.”

At the same time there has been a renaissance in the men’s sport, the female sport has taken a dip. In past years the name Nigella Saunders would be the one resonating among the fraternity with the prospect of an Olympic qualification.

However, Tolan said the state of the local sport is reflective of the sport world-wide.

“It’s a trend that’s global. It’s very difficult keeping the females in the sport. It’s a very tough, tough sport. It may look easy on the eyes but it’s tough keeping the women involved. We have not been able to keep many in the sport over the last two, three years.”

Noting that Katherine Wynter and Mikaylia Haldane were the two best local junior prospects now, Tolan added: “It’s going to take another five years before we get another Nigella. She really wanted it and she gave up a lot. She went to Denmark for about five years so she gave up much of her life to do that and we’re not really seeing much of the young ladies doing that these days.”

The Pan American Junior Championships, which the JBA was awarded in 2010, was the highlight of the year. Shane Wilson won the gold medal in the Under-13 boys category, while Tolan was returned unopposed for another four-year term as general secretary and will also represent Jamaica on the Pan American Sports Organisation (PASO).

“That was pretty much the height of this year because everything was concentrated on the Pan Am Junior Championships. Most of, if not all our resources went into it. It’s no secret that Jamaica did host a remarkable tournament.”

Tolan was grateful for the support of not only the Ministry of Sport which provided $3.5 million to the country’s hosting of the event, but also the other government agencies he said contributed such as the Ministry of Health which provided free health care, the Sports Development Foundation (SDF), which helped get goods cleared free of charge and the JUTC, which provided transportation at a reduced cost.

Now as the JBA prepares for 2012 the first half of the year will be geared towards sending a male team to the Thomas Uber Cup in California, which will cost between $600,000 and $700,000, as well as the Tournament of Kings in January and the Doubles Mania in February.

Tolan stated that once the Olympics end in August the JBA will turn its attention towards getting more international coaches to help boost the local programme.