2021 U.S. Junior Nationals Ranking/Participation Update

Dear junior players, parents, and other interested parties,

 

While USAB is excited to bring you this event, we understand some of the concerns raised by some in the junior community.

 

This event was somewhat of a logistical challenge due to the pandemic restrictions, the timeline of summer vacation, and the deadline to enter the junior Pan American championships, which is June 29th, 2021. We also wanted to hold the event as close as possible to the traditional timeframe of the week before the 4th of July. Additionally, we require a large facility to alleviate COVID concerns and allow social distancing in an area of the country that we hope has pleasant weather and where the event would be less likely to be canceled by COVID restrictions.

 

As USAB did not want to limit the elite players’ participation in the Junior Pan Am Championships and we needed objective criteria for selection, we decided to make Junior Nationals the JPAC selection event. As JPAC only allows US Citizens, the selection event should only allow US Citizens (USC). Otherwise, USCs defeated by a non-USC, perhaps even once in the main draw and once in the feed-in, may have a legitimate grievance on the right to compete. Ours is an imperfect solution and a compromise, made after much thought and consideration of all factors. I realize this isn’t very reassuring to some of you who now cannot play in JN. We hope to have many other tournaments this summer in which you can participate. We do this so we can hold a JN in 2021 and objectively select the players for JPAC.

 

The frozen rankings are now 14 months old, and the majority of the players in an age division have passed to the older age division. Additionally, using these rankings would be establishing retroactive criteria. To be fair criteria, the process would have had to be announced in March 2019 to be seen as not retroactive criteria for selection.

 

There is no alternative but to hold an event that is a selection event for the Junior Pan Am Championships, to be held in Mexico starting July 15th, 2021. I have been in near-constant contact with BPAC requesting that the Pan Am Championships be postponed to a later date, and alternatively, that the entry deadline be postponed to a later date, which would have allowed us to hold the JN in the traditional week preceding July 4th weekend

 

Because we are limiting this event to US citizens for all age divisions over the under 11 age group and it is the selection event for the JPAC, Junior Nationals will not be included in the US Junior rankings. However, the tournament results will be examined and considered in the upcoming tournaments for seeding purposes.

 

Only after posting the prospectus for JN, we officially learned that the JPAC Pan Am championships would be held in Mexico and held on the originally scheduled dates.

 

When the JN prospectus was posted, the Badminton Pan American Confederation (BPAC) rules, which were confirmed to me in an email from BPAC, included the under 11 age group in the 2021 JPAC. Shortly after the JN prospectus was posted, BPAC announced the event would be held but that the under 11 age division would not be included in the 2021 JPAC.  

 

 

Thank you for your dedication to badminton and your efforts on behalf of USAB.

 

Linda French 

USAB CEO / Secretary General