International players from 20 countries will compete this weekend for the five titles in the Irish International Badminton Championships, to be held at Dublin's Baldoyle Centre.
This season's championship counts for valuable Olympic qualifying points, as well as being the centenary year for the Badminton Union of Ireland.
The men's singles includes 12 of the top 100 ranked players in the world. Darren Hall of England is back looking for a third title in succession, but seeded ahead of him is Richard Vaughan of Wales. Irish interest will centre around Niall Tierney and Ciaran D'Arcy.
But the main hope for an Irish success will be in the ladies singles, where Sonya McGinn will attempt to go one better than last year when she lost the final to Justine Wilmott of England. Wilmott is back again, and there's also the top ranked Tanaka Miho of Japan.
In the doubles events, the Topping brothers, Mark and Bruce, will provide the main Irish challenge, and they've shown good form recently in the Czech and Icelandic Open. McGinn will team up with Keelin Fox in the women's event.
Two strong Irish pairings in the mixed doubles will be Donnie O'Halloran with Elaine Kiely and Bruce Topping with Jayne Plunkett.
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