The quality of badminton umpiring in Tasmania is highly regarded with two internationally recognised badminton technical officials – Karen Arnold and David Turner.
Karen Arnold began her involvement with badminton in childhood on the North West Coast at the Preolenna Hall in Wynyard and continued playing through primary and high school.
Karen took up umpiring 16 years ago and for the past six years has been recognised as a Level 1 Australian Umpire. Karen credits the support and encouragement of Tasmanian badminton identities Doug Brain and Peter Coker, for her involvement as a Line Judge at the Australian Open in 2016.
Karen’s significant umpiring experience includes as a Line Judge at the Australian Open in Sydney and the Sudirman Cup in Sydney in 2017, an Oceania Level Line Judge at the Commonwealth Games in 2018 and Assistant Referee at the Li-Ning Under 19 Australian Championships in 2019. In 2019, Karen was also a Badminton World Federation Line Judge for World junior Teams and World Junior Tournament.
Karen next heads to the Paralympic Games in Tokyo, as a Line Judge in badminton’s Paralympic debut.
Burnie’s David Turner has been a nationally qualified umpire since the mid-1980s and has been a State Senior Team umpire for more than 20 years. In 2001, David gained international umpire accreditation status and became an international certificated Olympic Umpire in 2009, umpiring at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
David has umpired at various World Junior Championships and numerous major tournaments around the world, and has umpired at the Australian Open for the past 10 years. He also served as a Line Judge at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. David is a member of the Oceania Technical Officials committee and Chair of the Assessment panel as well as a member of Badminton’s World Federation Assessment panel.
With the recent appointment of semi-professional BWF Umpires, and the recent umpiring course conducted by Badminton Tasmania, things are looking up for those who are keen on giving their time back to the sport and assisting by becoming volunteer technical officials!