Tournament organisers Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) and Badminton World Federation have jointly agreed to postpone the CELCOM AXIATA Malaysia Open 2021 scheduled for 25 – 30 May 2021.
All attempts were made by the organisers and BWF to provide a safe tournament environment for all participants, but the recent surge in cases left no choice but to postpone the tournament.
The CELCOM AXIATA Malaysian Open 2021 is a Super 750 event on the HSBC BWF World Tour and was originally scheduled as an Olympic qualifying tournament.
BWF can confirm the rescheduled tournament will no longer take place in the Olympic qualifying window. New tournament dates will be confirmed at a later date.
Just like the recent postponement of the YONEX-SUNRISE India Open 2021, the postponement of the CELCOM AXIATA Malaysia Open tournament comes as another disappointment to the aspiring Olympians from New Zealand, (Abhinav Manota, Oliver Leydon-Davis and Anona Pak) who were all in pursuit of vital World Ranking points from the limited tournaments left in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games qualifying period.
In the mixed doubles, Leydon-Davis and Pak are sitting at number 52 in the Race to Tokyo Rankings, while neighboring rivals from Australia (Simon Leung and Gronya Somerville) sit at 48 and the 16th (out of 16) qualification spot for the mixed double draw at the Tokyo 2020 Games.
Similarly, Leydon-Davis and Manota are sitting at number 63 in the Race to Tokyo Rankings, while Australia’s Simon Leung and Mitchell Wheller sit at the higher ranked 56. Neither pairs have currently qualified in the top 16, but it is possible for one of the pairs to qualify under the continental spot if they get into the top 50 of the Road To Tokyo Rankings.
Manota is also in pursuit of a men’s singles spot – currently sitting 85 in the overall World Rankings and 40 (out of 42) in the Tokyo 2020 qualification rankings – in line to receive an offer for a continental position.
Meanwhile, Australia’s Gronya Somerville and Setyana Mapasa do not intend to compete in the remaining qualifying event as they sit comfortably within the Road To Tokyo 2020 rankings.
The Singapore Open 2021 (Grade 2 – HSBC BWF World Tour Super 750) will be the final Olympic qualifying event, scheduled to take place from 1-6 June.
