In the modern era of sports, coaches and players have a new way of viewing results in competition.

No longer is it seen as win or lose; it is now viewed as win or learn.

For Tahlia Richardson, Jamaica’s number one women’s singles badminton player, that was the case after competing in and claiming a silver medal at the Jamaica Badminton Invitational Open held in Jamaica, earlier this month.

“I need to do more high-intensity training,” was her main takeaway after coming up against some of the best athletes in the world in her sport.

“That is one thing that most international players have over us Jamaicans, because we do not lack skill,” Richardson explained as she assessed the tournament from her perspective.

The Jamaica Badminton Association was lucky in being able to host the tournament, just days before the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) shut down most activities, including all sports, in the county.

Most Jamaican players failed to match their international counterparts in the singles events, exposed by the gap in fitness levels.

Richardson revealed that she has already started to respond to the deficit on her own.

“I have started to do more running and weightlifting and introduced skipping to my fitness regime as well,” she explained.

The teenager has been showing promise in the sport for years and really started to fulfil that promise when she won the All Jamaica Open to become Jamaica women’s singles champion at just 17 years old.

“It [All Jamaica Open] had meaning to it, but it [also] showed me that anything is possible now and that I should reach for higher heights and strive to play harder matches.

“It also taught me that I should train harder to be on the world circuit because I had conquered the Jamaican players,” Richardson noted.

Having been put to the sword in the second round of the women’s singles at the Jamaica Invitational by Jordan Hart of Great Britain, Richardson knows that she will have to raise her game and become more competitive on the international stage.

She also knows where to find the competition that will help her get to the next level in her game.

“I will challenge the boys,” Richardson said confidently. “All I will do is my best and assess what I have done.”

When asked if she thinks she can really pose a challenge to the boys, she was beaming with confidence in her response.

“There is only one way to find out!”

— Dwayne Richards