Kuala Lumpur: Manila in Philippines has been chosen as the host city for the 2020 Asia Championships, with the event moved from Wuhan in China due to the coronavirus outbreak. The event will take place in Manila from April 21 to April 26.
The decision was announced by Badminton World Federation (BWF) and was confirmed by Badminton Asia on Wednesday. This was the last opportunity for Asian players to rack up some good Olympic qualifying ranking points as the Olympic qualification ends on April 26, 2020, and BWF is set to publish the Olympic ranking list on April 30, 2020.
Badminton Asia was ensuring that this time, the Philippines government and Philippine Badminton Association (PBA) would work closely to issue visas for all shuttlers from all countries.
In early February, Philippines government has imposed the 14 days quarantine period for all travelers coming from China, Hong Kong and Macau due to the coronavirus outbreak. That announcement had forced China and Hong Kong’s men and women teams and also India’s women team to withdraw from badminton’s Asia Team Championships that kicked off in Manila on Feb 11, 2020.
“We have been trying to secure visa approval for all players and officials so they can be granted entry into Manila for this important and prestigious tournament,” said Badminton Asia in a statement published on Wednesday.
“We would like to take this opportunity to thank the president of the Philippine Badminton Association and relevant staff, together with the Government of the Philippines for assisting on this matter,” it added.
As of Wednesday, March, 4, 2020, there were 94,250 confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide, and 3,214 deaths have been linked to the virus.
