Badminton hopeful Annie Lado has had her first experience of a multi-sport event at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham – and is more determined than ever to make it to the top. 

The 21-year-old from Winchester attended the athletics at the Alexander Stadium – the first time she had witnessed the sport – and got to speak with athletes with different sports as part of the Team England Futures programme. 

Lado has lived in Milton Keynes, which is where the National Badminton Centre is based, since her call-up in the England set-up two years ago, becoming the latest product of the Westgate Performance Centre in Winchester to do so. 

Her best performance so far this year came when she finished third at the Luxembourg Open in May and she is hoping to one day emulate her team-mates competing at the Commonwealth Games in the future. 

Lado, who competes in women’s and mixed doubles, said: “I wish I could have gone and seen them, but I had an amazing opportunity here. 

“Competing at the Commonwealth Games in 2026 [in Victoria, Australia] is the next championship I want to get to. 

“I want to continuously build up my world rankings and win tournaments like international senior tournaments. 

“I just need to keeping improving, doing better with my partners, getting some more caps in between and getting some more experience to get that.” 

Team England Futures seeks to better prepare athletes to deliver medal-winning performances as either Team England, Team GB or ParalympicsGB debutants at future Games, while also giving support staff a first-hand look at the opportunities they could be presented with, as well as challenges they may face, at a multi-sport competition.

Along with hundreds of young athletes and support staff, Lado was given a tour of the athletes’ village as well as a behind-the-scenes look at some of the other facilities that have been provided to competitors. 

Lado said: “We had a look around the athletes’ village, which was really interesting because I didn’t expect it to be like that. 

“We also went to the kitting out a week before and again I didn’t expect there to be so much to it – I thought they handed the kit out and that was all. 

“I’d never been to an athletics meeting before, so that was exciting. 

“I spoke to an Olympic thrower while we were walking around the village and I was asking them so many questions and he said some really interesting things, like the ‘come down’ from Games. 

“That’s an example of little things you wouldn’t get if you didn’t speak to people like that.” 

Commonwealth Games England has appointed SportsAid to lead on the development, management and operational delivery of Team England Futures at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. You can find out more about the programme by visiting https://www.sportsaid.org.uk/partnerships/team-england-futures/.