Amy Ackerman and Deidré Jordaan have three badminton tournaments left in 2022 and their goal is to rank under 100 by the end of this season.
South Africa (09 November 2022) – Amy Ackerman and Deidré Jordaan have set their sights on becoming the top South African representatives for Badminton on the world stage. They joined forces at the start of 2022 as a new pairing and had no world ranking.
Today, after five tournaments, they are ranked at 127 in the world. They have three more tournaments in 2022 and they are aiming to dip below 100 by the end of the year! The upcoming tournaments include Zambia, Botswana and Cape Town.
The pair have just completed tournaments in Egypt, where they won a silver and the Maldives, where they didn’t place but learned valuable lessons.
Now the final tournaments for the season are about to take place and they are raising awareness once again, to get the support needed to represent South Africa.
Currently, Badminton South Africa (BSA) is unfunded, unsponsored, and awaits support from the National Lottery Fund or another sponsor. For these reasons, BSA is unable to provide any financial assistance to any of the South African players chosen for the Road to Paris programme.
Amy and Deidré have been included in the Badminton Confederation of Africa’s (BCA) “Road to Paris” (RTP) programme. This programme has identified Africa’s most promising badminton players that show potential to qualify for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France. Their inclusion in the programme is following their success at the African Championships held in February this year, where they achieved a silver medal.
The objective of the RTP programme is to facilitate the attendance of these players at several African, Pan-American and other international tournaments to boost their world ranking with Badminton World Federation (BWF). To qualify for the Olympics, players will need to be ranked number one in their discipline (singles/doubles/mixed doubles) in Africa and among the top 50 in the world.
Amy Ackerman
Amy Ackerman, age 17, is a talented South African national badminton player. She has been a member of the South African Senior squad since 2020, when she joined at the age of 14.
She represented South Africa at the Senior African Championships in 2020, 2021 and 2022, competing in all disciplines of the sport (singles, doubles and mixed doubles).
In 2020 she achieved a bronze medal for doubles, In 2021 she achieved a gold medal for doubles. In 2022 she achieved a silver medal for doubles. She was included in the Commonwealth Games Squad but due to recovering from injury could not attend.
Deidré is currently seeking financial support and sponsorship towards these costs. Should you, your company or anyone in your network be able to assist in this regard, please donate towards her goal to get to Paris via BackaBuddy here.
Deidré Jordaan
Deidré Jordaan, age 27, is an accomplished South African national badminton player, who has been part of the South African squad since 2020. She has represented South Africa many times and is now on her way to doing so in Paris, France.
Deidré represented South Africa at the African Championships in 2020, 2021 and 2022. She showed her sporting talent by competing in all badminton disciplines, including singles, doubles and mixed doubles.
At the Benin Internationals 2021, she and her teammates did a great job in flying the flag high. Her most recent accomplishment was representing South Africa in Badminton at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, United Kingdom.
Deirdre is working hard towards being the top player in South Africa. She has been excited about the upcoming tournaments, which will aid in her pursuit of Paris. She has been able to come up with some of the funding but was hoping to get support for the shortfall.
She is now faced with trying to self-fund the shortfall to compete. To make this dream a reality, Deidré has set up a crowdfund to cover the remaining shortfall of R97,154.
Deidré is currently seeking financial support and sponsorship towards these costs. Should you, your company or anyone in your network be able to assist in this regard, please donate on this page or contact her at deidrelaurens@gmail.com.
You can help Deidré with her goal to get to Paris via BackaBuddy here.
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