The Badminton World Federation has ruled out any further qualifying events for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. That shatters dreams of Sainai Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth to qualify for the Summer Olympics this year.
That BWF decision, in wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, has brought to an end any remote or theoretical possibility the Indian duo could have.
“The Badminton World Federation (BWF) can confirm no further tournaments will be played inside the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games qualifying window,” the BWF has stated in a statement.
“As such, while the qualification period officially closes (on) 15 June 2021 as per the Revised Tokyo 2020 Qualification System, the current Race To Tokyo rankings list will not change.”
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The only hope for fringe players now rests on withdrawals. The process of enrolment for the qualified players will start over the next few days and close with the last date of submitting entries on July 5. The Games are slated from July 23 to August 8.
“The Olympic qualification process is in effect closed as there are no additional opportunities for players to earn points,” said BWF Secretary General Thomas Lund.
“However, we still need to receive confirmations from National Olympic Committees and Member Associations, followed by any possible reallocations, and this will take a number of weeks to complete.”
The BWF was forced to cancel the last three Olympic qualifying events — India Open, Malaysia Open and Singapore Open.
The move had left India with only four representations – PV Sindhu, B Sai Praneeth and the men’s doubles pairing of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy – in the Tokyo 2020 Badminton competition.
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