Now on its third year running, the turnout of individual entries to the 2006 Yonex-Sunrise Philippines National Open Badminton Championships surpassed expectations. The number of entries easily breached the 1,500 mark as participants scrambled to submit entries the very last minute of the last day of registration. 

Sanctioned by the Philippine Badminton Association, the tournament is an event much-awaited by the Philippine badminton community; as with last year’s run, this year expects to witness the best from among current and ex-national team players, current and former UAAP, club players, and independent amateur players. More importantly, the tournament hopes to once more discover new fresh talents from the far corners of the north and south of the country. This year sees entries from as far north as the Ilocos region and from as far south as Davao City.

Breaching the 1,500 mark in the number of participants was surprisingly easy this year, as the tournament’s category line-up has been further fine-tuned to accommodate as wide a reach of participants as possible. The Juniors Category, for instance, has been split further to include the 12 years old and under events, giving the youngest of the breed of young stars better chances of getting plum prizes. Interestingly, entries for the Seniors 40 and above category overflowed this year, as many appear to have been encouraged by last year’s turnout in this event; with ex-national team players provided a category all their own (Seniors Veterans), other seniors’ chances of winning have never been better. As before, the Open, Seniors 19-29, and Seniors 30-39 events remain much-awaited and touted as crowd-drawers. 

This year also sees a surprisingly significant increase in companies vying for top slots in the Industry Events, which include among others, teams from the banking, media, marketing, and telecommunication industries.

The 2006 Yonex-Sunrise Philippines National Open Badminton Championships will run from October 20-29, 2006 at the Yonex Philippines Badminton Club. Selected finals matches will once more be aired live over Studio 23 on October 29, while others will be telecast delayed on November 3, 2006.