Welsh para-badminton star hopes for LA 2028

Local TV

Cardiff is hosting the British and Irish Para-badminton internationals, and one homegrown hero is hoping to make his mark. No Welshman has ever competed in the Paralympics in badminton, so Jack Wilson is hoping to be the first.

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00:00I'm soaking it in that like I'm in the way I've trained for 10 years. I'm absolutely

00:06comfortable, I'm absolutely perfect, I'm happy and I just feel a bit free and relaxed, I'd

00:11say. The fact that people are watching me doesn't really have much pressure and what

00:15not, but yeah, I'm just pleased, I'd say.

00:18Cardiff is home to so many different sports. Of course, we've got the rugby, the football

00:22and other sports come to the city and the latest is Para-Badminton. The British and

00:26Irish, Para-Badminton International has been underway in Cardiff, showcasing some of the

00:30best athletes from across the globe. Peru, Italy, Australia, Taiwan, South Korea, Brazil, you

00:36name it, they're all here. But there's one homegrown hero that has been looking to make

00:40his mark. Number one ranked Welsh player, Jack Wilson.

00:45No, it's the kind of, I need to be in the top 12 to get into the future level ones so

00:51that you have your best chance of going to the Olympic, basically. But I think that win

00:57probably has been in a good position, so yeah, we see. But yeah, I don't know everything that

01:02I can do for now and yeah.

01:05Because winning that match means that he now gives himself a really strong chance of progressing

01:09through the group. But yeah, a lot of the stuff that he's worked on over the last two or

01:14three months is starting to happen and it's worked exceptionally hard, there's nutrition

01:18and that has had a massive effect on his speed. And yeah, some of the points today are just

01:23really sort of emphasising how well that's coming off.

01:26With the hundreds of competitors from across the world all travelling to Cardiff and some

01:30media coverage as well as matches being live-streamed, Graham from Badminton Wales hopes that the event

01:35will grow the sport in Wales and showcase just what we have to offer.

01:40Yeah, it is a sort of chance for us to showcase Badminton and Jack obviously being successful

01:46at an event in Wales is only going to sort of spread that word of come and play Badminton.

01:51It's such an amazing sport and a lot of people do play but we need to get that sort of coverage

01:58and support and just more people interested in it. And yeah, I think we've got a handful of players

02:03on our programme and yeah, we're doing well and we want to showcase those so we get more

02:08inspiration for the next generation and so on really.

02:12Jack has his sights set on LA 2028 and despite it still being a full three years to go,

02:17there are plenty of opportunities to qualify for the Paralympics at this event and others

02:21coming up in the future. So this could be the start of a long qualifying campaign.

02:26Yeah, it seems mad that we're actually talking about 2028 already but we need to get in position

02:31so we've got a really good chance to start qualification in this category.

02:35So when we're looking at it, it needs to be top 12 in the world.

02:39So points and all the sort of stuff that goes with it is going to be vital.

02:44But we sort of start qualification in a really sort of positive way.

02:48So every single tournament from now on is going to be really important.

02:52And he's got that sort of belief and confidence in him and it just needs to come out at the right time.

02:57Today was, yeah, a pretty good day.

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