New Delhi: The Malaysia Open Super 750 event, considered one of badminton’s final two Olympic qualifying occasions, was on Friday postponed due to a latest COVID-19 surge within the host nation, dealing a extreme blow to the Tokyo hopes of Indian stars like Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth. The USD 600,000 occasion was scheduled to be held in Kuala Lumpur from May 25 to 30.
“All attempts were made by the organisers and BWF to provide a safe tournament environment for all participants, but the recent surge in cases left no choice but to postpone the tournament,” Badminton World Federation mentioned in a press release.
“BWF can confirm the rescheduled tournament will no longer take place in the Olympic qualifying window. New tournament dates will be confirmed at a later date.”
The determination got here as an enormous setback for London Olympics bronze-medallist Saina and males’s star Srikanth’s final hopes of Olympic qualification.
Following the postponement of the India Open (May 11-16), Saina and Srikanth’s qualification for the Tokyo Games hinged on the Kuala Lumpur occasion adopted by the Singapore Open (June 1-6).
It is extremely unlikely that the Indian duo will likely be ready to journey to Singapore because the nation has suspended all flights from COVID-ravaged India.
The Badminton Association of India had earlier mentioned that as per the laid-out pointers, for any Indian to enter Singapore, they’ve to both be in quarantine in another country aside from India for 14 days to be allowed to enter Singapore.
“Alternatively all players have to maintain a 21 days quarantine in Singapore.”
Malaysia too has banned all flights from India and BAI had been exploring different routes to attain there by way of Doha or Sri Lanka however with the suspension of the Kuala Lumpur occasion, efforts would now be directed in the direction of Singapore.
Indian shuttlers who’ve already made the minimize for the Olympics embrace PV Sindhu, B Sai Praneeth and the boys’s doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy.
Besides the quartet, Srikanth, Saina and the ladies’s doubles pair of N Sikki Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa have been supposed to take part within the two Olympic qualifiers.
