PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian Open badminton championships has been postponed indefinitely and it will no longer be an Olympic Games qualifying event.
The Badminton World Federation (BWF) said the second-tier World Tour event can no longer be held on its scheduled May 25-30 dates due to the recent spike in Covid-19 cases in the country. All attempts were made by the organisers (Badminton Association of Malaysia) 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, said BWF in a statement on Friday (May 7). 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.
PETALING JAYA: Malaysian shuttlers hoping to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics in July must make the most of their opportunities over the next three months.
The Badminton World Federation (BWF) have confirmed that there will be no more changes to the Race to Tokyo qualification process which concludes in mid-June.
This comes after they had extended the qualifying cut-off date from May 2 to June 15 to pave the way for the rescheduling of two crucial events – the Malaysian Open (May 25-30) and Singapore Open (June 1-6). There have been a number of qualifiers cancelled, including some lower-tier events, due to Covid-19 concerns and the most notable was the German Open, which was supposed to take place next week.
Malaysia s Goh V Shem (left) and Tan Wee Kiong. - S.S.KANESAN/The Star
PETALING JAYA: Veteran men s doubles Goh V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong are through to the Yonex Thailand Open final at Impact Arena in Bangkok after seeing out the challenge of young Indonesian pair Leo Rolly Carnando-Daniel Marthin 21-19,21-10 in a semi-final match on Saturday (Jan 16).
V Shem-Wee Kiong were simply too strong as they took just 29 minutes to beat the Indonesians, the reigning junior world champions, to book a place in the season-opening BWF (Badminton World Federation) World Tour event.
V Shem-Wee Kiong, will take on either Lee Yang-Wang Chi-lin of Taiwan or South Koreans Choi Sol-gyu-Seo Seung-jae in the men s doubles final on Sunday (Jan 17).