Bring on the rock stars!

Billed as a North American first and one of the biggest tournaments of its type in the world, Racket Rally 2009 at the spectacular new Richmond Olympic Oval is bringing together the global "rock stars" of badminton and table tennis for a three-day tourney next month.

"The great thing about this is that you won’t otherwise see this level of play in North America," says event producer John Rocha, of Rocha Taner Results.

"In the last 10 years, this level of player has never been to B.C."

While the Oval was designed to host speed skating competitions for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, the expansive facility is being turned over to summer sport April 3-5 with an event staged to highlight the planned "legacy usage" of the marque venue.

The Oval will be set-up to feature a 1,950-seat showcase stadium for the main event (with a hardwood area in the middle the size of four basketball courts), while simultaneously hosting a 24 court (12 badminton and 12 table tennis) festival on the remaining event floor – for a full 512,000 square feet of racket sports.

Flying in for Racket Rally 2009 are six of the best table tennis and badminton players in the world. The two sports were the first to sell out in Beijing during the 2008 Olympics, and will now be showcased together for the first time on the continent.

The badminton stars include Peter Gade of Denmark, the No. 4 player in the world, and Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia, the No. 7 player in the world and a 2004 Olympic Gold Medallist. Among the table tennis masters is Chen Weixing of Austria, the reigning European Champion.

Racket Rally features a three-man round-robin match format for each sport taking place over four sessions on three days. Players will compete for total prize money of $20,000. Each session will feature both a badminton and table tennis match with the final match for each sport featured on Sunday, April 5.

"After seeing the popularity of both table tennis and badminton at the Beijing Olympics we can’t wait to see some of the best Summer Olympians right here in our own Olympic venue" said John Mills, General Manager, Richmond Olympic Oval.

Brock Turner, Chief Executive Officer of Badminton BC, says he’s not surprised excitement for the unique racket sport event is already spreading "like wildfire."

Badminton, he says, has never been as popular in the province, with 500 competitive players in B.C. – many still in high school – and a further 250 masters players engaged in national and international medal competition.

"We’ve got the international athletes coming in – the rock stars – and then between those sessions, we’re actually holding a public tournament," says Brock, of the four recreational tournaments that will be open to the public at the oval that same weekend.

"Then the BC Table Tennis Association is holding its BC Open at the same time on the same site, and they still have a third of the space left over and BC Tennis is coming in and setting up foam ball tennis for the kids to come and do that!

"This thing is ginormous!"

Anyone even remotely connected to badminton in B.C. is eager to catch a glimpse of Indonesia’s Gold Medal winning "national hero" Taufik Hidayat, says Brock.

"This guy’s something else," he says. "And he’s not a big guy, maybe 5’ 8". He’s like a cat out there!"

Consul Singgih Yuwono, from the Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia in Vancouver, says he and his diplomatic colleagues will be front and centre in support of Taufik and visiting badminton player Andre Tedjono, also of Indonesia and ranked No. 18 in the world.

"This is good opportunity for the Indonesian community to see the world badminton players playing in Vancouver, especially some of the players from Indonesia," says Consul Singgih. "Badminton is a very popular sport in Indonesia, and perhaps it is also the most popular sport in East Asia."

The Consul says he hopes Racket Rally will lead to bigger things for badminton in Vancouver.

"I see a lot of people playing badminton in Vancouver and there are growing numbers of people playing badminton," he says. "I hope there will be an international tournament in Vancouver, in the near future."

According to Racket Rally producer John Rocha, there may well be.

"We’re getting really good interest," says Rocha. "It might be an annual event. We think it has the legs to do that. Especially growing with Fairchild TV, which for the first time has taken on a sports property.