Badminton Diplomatic Cup

Saturday-Sunday, 15-16 November 2008

The Embassy, in cooperation with Bulgarian Badminton Federation (BBF), organized the first Badminton Diplomatic Cup in Zala Sofia on 15-16 November 2008. Ambassador Inkiriwang and staff as well as Ambassadors and representatives from several Embassies in Sofia (Austria, Czech Republic, France, Hungary, India, Romania, Slovakia and Ukraine) donned their sporting clothes and rackets as they competed in 5 divisions; men single, women single, men double, women double and mixed double. Ambassador Inkiriwang and Mrs. Fely Rose Inkiriwang; Czech Ambassador, H.E. Mr. Martin Klepetko; Ambassador of Hungary, H.E. Mrs. Judith Lang; Slovakian Ambassador, H.E. Mr. Karol Minstrik were among the participants.

The awarding and closing ceremony on 16 November was attended by Ambassador Inkiriwang, Ambassador Klepetko, and other participants. President of the BBF, Prof. Puzant Kassabian; Secretary General of BBF, Mr. Harry Viktorov; Director of Protection of Activities and Information of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Dimitar Hadjiev gave the awards to the winners. President of the BBF later hosted lunch to all the participants.

President of the BBF thanked all the participants, especially  the Indonesian Embassy for co-organizing the event. This tournament would be developed further in the future where in 2009, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would be the main organizer of the tournament. The tournament in 2009 would be held twice, in Spring for the Embassies in Sofia, and in autumn involving also the Embassies in surrounding countries. Ambassador Inkiriwang thanked the BBF and welcome the plan of the Ministry to develop further this tournament. Ambassador Inkiriwang added that the idea for organizing this tournament was started from the badminton tournament held in conjunction with the Indonesian Independence Day in June, which then developed into this Badminton Diplomatic Cup.