Selangor Journal
Picture shown for illustration purposes only. — Picture via Badminton World Federation (BWF)

BWF cancels Swiss Open, European Championships

KUALA LUMPUR, June 11 — The Badminton World Federation (BWF) has called off the 2020 Swiss Open and European Championships due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Both tournaments were previously put on ‘suspended’ status until suitable replacement dates could be found, but BWF yesterday confirmed their cancellation.

The Swiss Open, a Super 300 event on the BWF World Tour, was due to take place on March 17-22, while the European Championships were originally scheduled to be held in Kyiv, Ukraine from April 21-26 but the BWF, however, halted all its tournaments due to the pandemic.

“The BWF, in close consultation and consensus with Swiss Badminton and tournament organisers, concluded that it was no longer feasible to hold the tournament at a later date in 2020.

“Badminton Europe and the Ukrainian Badminton Federation (UBF) also agreed that it was best to cancel the 2020 European Championships. UBF has agreed to host the 2021 version and it will be staged in the same Ukrainian city from April 27 to May 2 2021,” the world badminton governing body said in a statement.

Just five days ago, the BWF had announced the cancellation of three other tournaments, namely the Australian Open (June 2-7), Hyderabad Open (August 11-16) and Korean Masters (November 24-29).

According to the updated BWF tournament calendar for 2020, the China Masters, which has been rescheduled to Aug 25-30 in Sanya, might be the first international badminton event to be held since the All-England was held in March before the vast majority of tournaments were either suspended, postponed or cancelled due to the pandemic.

— Bernama

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