Badminton World Junior C’ships fall to pandemic

Kuala Lumpur, Thursday: The 2020 World Junior Badminton Championships, due to be held in New Zealand, were cancelled Tuesday because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The event, originally scheduled for May was rescheduled to October before being shifted again to January 2021.

Thomas Lund, the Badminton World Federation (BWF) secretary-general, said travel and entry restrictions, quarantine rules and complexities related to the Covid-19 pandemic made staging the event "impossible".

"The ongoing Covid-19 restrictions and uncertainty left BWF, Badminton New Zealand and tournament organisers no choice but to cancel the event," the BWF said in a statement.

With a host for the next edition in 2021 already in place, further postponement was not an option, the BWF said. But BWF have accepted a proposal for New Zealand to stage the 2024 edition as a replacement for the edition lost.

Badminton New Zealand chief executive Joe Hitchcock said the cancellation was "tremendously" disappointing, but agreed that it was the right decision to make. AFP

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