The NIA, 5 – 10 March 2013

The NIA in Birmingham will host the Yonex All England Open Badminton Championships and from 5 – 10 March 2013 it will open its doors to the finest badminton talent from around the globe.

If you didn’t manage to get your hands on badminton Olympic tickets, then fear not as this Super Series Premier event will see the Olympic hopefuls and current World and Olympic Champion, Lin Dan fight for valuable qualification points.

 The Yonex All England Open Badminton Championships promises fast paced action, extreme agility and unique precision from the fastest racket sport on the planet.

The All England Open Badminton Championships, or simply All England, is the world’s oldest and most prestigious badminton tournament.

Played annually, it developed after the success of world’s first open tournament held in Guildford in 1898. The tournament was successfully organised in April 4, 1899, however only three categories (Men’s Doubles, Women’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles) were originally staged. Both Men’s and Women’s Singles were added the following year.

The first two tournaments were named “Badminton Association Tournament. It was eventually considered (especially after the first Thomas Cup series in 1949) the unofficial World Badminton Championships until 1977 when the International Badminton Federation launched its official championships. The tournaments were halted twice: during World War I from 1915 to 1919 and World War II from 1940 to 1946.

Since 1984 the tournament has been exclusively sponsored by Yonex.