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QUALIFICATION PERIOD FOR TOKYO 2020 BADMINTON TOURNAMENTS EXTENDED

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Reprieve may have come to Nigerian badminton players struggling to make the cut to Tokyo 2020 Olympics. The qualification period for the badminton tournaments at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games has been extended from April 25 to June 15.

The change comes after the Badminton World Federation (BWF) announced alterations to the World Tour tournament calendar due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The Malaysia Open in Kuala Lumpur was postponed from April 6 to 11 to May 25 to 30, while the Malaysia Masters has been delayed until further notice. 

The Singapore Open has been rescheduled to June 1 to 6. 

Both the Badminton Association of Malaysia and Singapore Badminton Association cited ongoing COVID-19 complications and wished for the tournaments to be postponed. 

In securing new dates for the Malaysia Open and Singapore Open, BWF confirmed the Indonesia Masters and Indonesia Open have also been postponed. 

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Replacement dates for those tournaments will be announced in due course.

The last event to count for Tokyo 2020 qualification will now be the Singapore Open. 

There are 172 quota places available at the Olympics, scheduled for July 23 to August 8, with berths set to be decided by the BWF rankings list. 

The BWF and IOC are working to update the qualification system, however, with the final regulations set to be shared once they receives formal approval. 

International BWF events are set to resume with the Swiss Open in Basel from March 2 to 7, and the All England Open in Birmingham from March 17 to 21.  

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Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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