KUALA LUMPUR: The Badminton World Federation (BWF) will extend the Olympic qualifying period until Week 17 of 2021 and will include only those tournaments that were postponed, cancelled or suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The world governing body said in a statement issued today that the eligible tournaments within the new qualifying period must be completed within the first 17 weeks of 2021, adding that the tournaments rescheduled for the end of 2020 under the revamped BWF Tournament Calendar released last week would not count towards qualification.
“Only the 2021 editions of each tournament will be counted in the qualifying process,” it said, adding that BWF noted that the next editions of these tournaments must be conducted within week 1-17 of 2021 to be considered eligible for qualification.
The BWF also pointed out that players from China and Hong Kong would be eligible to earn points from the 2021 Badminton Asia Team Championships as they were not able to compete in the 2020 edition in Manila due to travel restrictions imposed by the Philippines following the pandemic.
Meanwhile, BWF said in the same statement that the 2020 Spanish Para Badminton International, which was cancelled due to the pandemic, has now been included in the adjusted qualification system for the period from Jan 1-March 28 2021.
BWF revealed that all ranking points earned at tournaments completed during the original Olympic and Paralympic qualification period would be maintained under the Race to Tokyo Ranking list. – Bernama
