Former Indian badminton international Anuj Talwar has been selected on the country's junior badminton team staff ahead of the Carebaco Championships carded for August 17-20 at the National Racquet Centre in Tacarigua.
Talwar joins head coach Christopher Joachim as a guest coach alongside three assistant coaches -Stephanie Mitchell, a former national standout, Janine Reyes and Cedric Urqhart.
The quartet is now hard at work, attempting to prepare a team to either better or equal the performances of the junior team at the last Carebaco championships in 2019, coach Joachim said, adding that the junior team did very well in all the different divisions then in Barbados.
Talwar, an expatriate from his company in India, asked to assist in the team's preparation and was accepted.
Joachim said the country's junior team, which includes the Under-11 (eight players), U-13 (eight players), U-15 (16 players), U-17 (16 players), and U-19 (eight players) divisions, have been working really hard to perform at their best.
"The team has been coming together, they have been training hard. They have been jellying nicely and I think we have the talent to do really well. I can't afford to be pressured because I have to focus on the development of the players and the team," Joachim said.
"The training period is a bit short, you can always do with more time. We have to ensure that the development is continuous. We have senior players with more experience helping out with the development of the younger ones.
"We have the talent, so now we just have to continue the coaching process."
Meanwhile, the country's senior team left on Tuesday for the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games in El Salvador. The two-member team comprises Will Lee and Chequeda De Boulet, both the senior national women's and men's champions. They were joined by coach Anil Seepaul.
