Many-time All Jamaica Badminton Open Women’s single champion Katherine Wynter says she is using the COVID-19 pandemic break to refocus her match-playing strategies as she aims to claim back her spot as the country’s top female player.

The novel coronavirus’ (COVID-19) sweeping impact has catapulted global sporting events and calendars in a tailspin with indefinite postponements and cancellations.

Wynter, who won the 2016 Jamaica International tournament in the women’s doubles event partnering with Ruth Williams, said that since the COVID-19 attack she has been home training to stay fit.

“Since the sport has been on a break I have been home as I left my job at the Private Security Regulation Authority last year September so that I could pursue some training for my sport overseas.

“I trained at the E Badminton Club in Canada, and I was there for two months. I have been home helping my mother with her real estate business,” she said.

Wynter says her current training regimeny is restrictive, but welcomes the opportunity to stay in shape.

“I do some home workouts [as] I can’t really do actually badmintion training because all of the halls are closed, but I just do what I can do at home. I do like treadmill, skipping, ABS workouts, pushups and some agility workouts.

“My main focus going forward is to get back on top and to come back stronger and to come back better over this period of break. I can work on my agility, fitness and strength meantime, so at least whenever I can get back on court I would be fit and ready to go. That is what I am working on,” Wynter told the Jamaica Observer.

She said in her desire to rise to the top of the sport once again, she would have recognised that it cannot be business as usal.

“To become the number one female player once more I think I have to review how I strategise games that I have played. It is really just the tactical part I think that held me back, and after sitting down really long and hard thinking about my matches, I definitely have found a new strategy that I want to put forward, and so when the time comes and I get my chance I will try that,” noted Wynter, whose last major win came in January of this year when she won the 2020 Jamaica Badminton Association’s Tournament of Kings.

Her last tournament was at the recent Jamaica International where she made it to the quarter-finals in the mixed doubles.

“We lost to the pair that ended up winning the tournament. I strongly believed that if we had been on the other half of the draw we would have made it to the finals.

“My partner and I, Matthew Lee, were a really new pair as that was our first international tournament together, and before that we only played two local tournaments.

“He had never played mixed doubles before we got together and so it was new territory for him, but for a new pair I thought we did well,” Wynter explained.