Coronavirus threat: Asia Badminton Championships moved to Manila

The Badminton Asia Championship which was scheduled to be held next month in Wuhan, China has now been shifted from Wuhan and will be held in Manila, the capital of the Philippines due to the Coronavirus threat. The officials informed about it on Wednesday. Officials have said that the Badminton Asia Championship will be held in Manila from 21 to 26 April.

It is to be noted that the Badminton Asia Championship is an Olympic qualifying event and is one of the last opportunities for the shuttlers to qualify for the mega sports event to be held later this year.

Badminton Asian has also revealed that it is in talks with Philippine Badminton Association (PBA) to ensure visas of all athletes for individual championships.

A statement by Badminton Asian read,

“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. 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.”

Due to this deadly virus, in recent weeks, many sports competitions have been canceled or postponed. Apart from this, some tournaments have been shifted from the original location to be held elsewhere. Due to coronavirus infection world sports federations are reluctant to host any sports competitions in China.

So far more than 2900 people have died due to coronavirus infection in China, due to which no sports competition is being organized here. Significantly, the coronavirus continues to wreak havoc in more than 20 countries around the world, including China.

The coronavirus has its impact in Japan as well and the Olympics have been clouded with uncertainty as Japan’s Olympic Minister Seiko Hashimoto said in the country’s parliament that this year’s Olympic Games could be postponed due to the coronavirus.

However, later the International Olympic Committee confirmed plans to stage the Games from 24 July 24 to 9 August remain unchanged and encouraged athletes to prepare for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics with “full steam”.