COVID-19 outbreak: BWF suspends all badminton tournaments till July

With most sporting tournaments hitting a halt, the Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Monday suspended its all competitions till July. This includes World Tour, BWF Tour, and other BWF-sanctioned tournaments.

"Tournaments affected include three HSBC BWF World Tour events headlined by the BLIBLI Indonesia Open 2020 (Super 1000), plus a number of Grade 3, Junior and Para badminton competitions," read a BWF statement.

"The health, safety, and wellbeing of all athletes, their entourage, officials and the greater badminton community remain the top priority," said the BWF.

The BWF is also reviewing the impacts of the rescheduling of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games upon the Olympic and Paralympic qualification system.

"This review process is expected to take several weeks upon which BWF will make a further announcement," the elite body for the badminton said.

Earlier, the BWF had suspended the five major tournaments -- VICTOR Croatian International 2020 (16-19 April), Peru International 2020 (16-19 April), 2020 European Championships (21-26 April), Badminton Asia Championships 2020 (21-26 April) and XXIV Pan Am Individual Championships 2020 (23-26 April).

(Inputs from ANI)