In 'fair solution' for shuttlers, BWF says Olympic qualification process to start in 2021

Facing criticism for packing 22 tournaments in five months in its revised calendar, Badminton World Federation on Wednesday said disrupted Olympic qualification process will restart only next year with players having benefit of holding on to ranking points y have already secured. BWF said tournaments anunced for this year in its revised calendar will t be considered Olympic qualifiers. calendar begins in August and has drawn sharp criticism from shuttlers, who have called it too crammed. "An extended Olympic qualification period will be introduced from Week 1-17 in 2021 and includes select number of tournaments that were postponed, cancelled or suspended due to COVID-19," BWF said in a release. "se eligible tournaments within new qualifying period must be completed by Week 17 in 2021," it added.

"Fair solution" 

BWF was unable to complete last six weeks of its one-year qualifying period, which ended on April 28. But with Tokyo Games postponed due to global health crisis, governing body of badminton has decided to extend Olympic qualification period to next year. BWF also said that postponed Olympic qualifiers are likely to be held in same week next year as originally planned in 2020.

"Such eligible tournaments within this new qualifying period should preferably take place in same corresponding week from 2020 to 2021. If this is t possible, BWF will allow sanctioning ar date within Week 1-17 in 2021 subject to approval."

BWF also said that ranking points gared by players in completed tournaments during qualification phase, which was between April 29, 2019 to April 26, 2020, will be maintained. "All ranking points earned at tournaments completed during original Olympic qualification period will be maintained under Race to Tokyo ranking list," world body said. BWF had earlier frozen world rankings, making standings on March 17 basis for entry and seedings for events when y resumed. 

governing body had last week unveiled a revised calendar for remainder of 2020. However, BWF made it clear that those tournaments won't be included in Olympic qualification process. "Tournaments rescheduled for end of 2020 outlined in revamped BWF Tournament Calendar 2020 released last week will t count towards qualification. Only 2021 editions of each tournament," it said.

BWF secretary general Thomas Lund said new proposal is a "a fair solution for all athletes".

"...and it will be our first and main priority to conduct se tournaments as part of badminton and Para badminton's adjusted return in wake of COVID-19," he said.

"Although we aim to resume international tournaments towards end of 2020, we have chosen to resume Olympic and Paralympic qualification process only in 2021 to ensure that travel restrictions and or related impacts of COVID-19 are limited," he added.

BWF also said that "players from China and Hong Kong will be eligible to earn points from 2021 Badminton Asia Team Championships as y "were t able to participate in 2020 Badminton Asia Team Championships in Manila." governing body also decided to maintain ranking points earned during original Paralympic qualification period and conduct Spanish Para-Badminton International, only paralympic qualifier to be cancelled due to coronavirus outbreak, within a period from January 1 to March 28 next year. BWF said it "is still working on exact model for unfreezing of all world rankings in a staggered way to avoid any extreme drop off of points that would affect ranking structure."  international body had earlier suspended all tournaments after All England Championships in March till July due to  contagious disease, which has so far claimed more than 3.5 lakh lives globally. 

Im credits: PTI