Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth‘s slim hopes of making it to the Tokyo Olympics are virtually over after the Badminton World Federation (BWF) announced the cancellation of Singapore Open due to the coronavirus pandemic. Saina is currently on the 22nd place in the Olympic qualification rankings while Srikanth is on the 20th position. Only shuttlers in the Top 16 make it to the mega-event. From rank 17 and onwards, players get entry by turn depending on two factors – if a player from top 16 pulls out or is not issued an NOC from his/her country and if there are more than two players from any countries in the top 16. Singapore Open was the last remaining badminton qualifying tournament ahead of the Olympics, slated for July 23-August 8.
The tournament, which was scheduled for June 1-6, will not be rescheduled, the BWF said in a statement. “All attempts were made by the organisers and BWF to provide a safe tournament environment for all participants.” However, rising Covid-19 cases globally led to complex challenges in managing inbound travel,” the BWF said.
It added that it would issue a further statement on Olympic games qualifying at a later date.
Singapore’s infection numbers have been very low compared to the rest of the world but officials last week banned spectators at sporting events and tightened travel curbs after discovering several new clusters.
Officials in the city of 5.7 million have reported about 61,000 cases so far and 31 deaths.
As with other sports, the badminton calendar has been thrown into chaos due to the pandemic, with many events cancelled worldwide in the past year.
The only major events to take place in Asia this year were three tournaments held in Bangkok in January.
Currently, India has only three representation in Tokyo – PV Sindhu (women’s singles), B Sai Praneeth (men’s singles) and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty (men’s doubles).
(With AFP inputs)
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