Covid-19 restrictions put end to China tournaments this year

THERE will be no further tournaments in China for the remainder of the year due to Covid-19 restrictions.

The Badminton World Federation (BWF) yesterday released a revised tournament calendar for the rest of the season, which will resume after the Tokyo Olympics on July 23-Aug 8.

Vantaa, Finland, will host the Sudirman Cup on Sep 26-Oct 3, replacing Suzhou, China, who were supposed to organise it on May 23-30.

There will be a one-week break before everyone shifts their focus on the Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Aarhus, Denmark on Oct 9-17.

For the record, the Thomas and Uber Cups were postponed from last year.

Bali will also host two other tournaments, the Indonesia Masters (Nov 16-21) and the Indonesia Open (Nov 23-28), as part of a three-tournament Asian leg.

The final tournament on the 2021 calendar will be the World Championships in Huelva, Spain on Dec 12-19.

BWF also noted that 10 tournaments previously classified as postponed in quarter one and two this year have been cancelled.

However, three tournaments — Malaysia Masters, Malaysia Open and the Korea Masters — are still categorised as postponed as the respective hosts wish to continue exploring options to stage the events.

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