Tournament organisers Singapore Badminton Association (SBA) and Badminton World Federation (BWF) have jointly agreed to cancel the Singapore Open 2021 scheduled for 1 – 6 June 2021.
All attempts were made by the organisers and BWF to provide a safe tournament environment for all participants. However, rising COVID-19 cases globally led to complex challenges in managing inbound travel. Thus, in the interests of all players, tournament personnel and the local community’s health and safety, the event has been cancelled.
BWF can confirm the tournament will not be rescheduled.
The Singapore Open 2021 is a Super 500 event on the HSBC BWF World Tour and was the last tournament offering Race To Tokyo ranking points inside the Olympic qualifying window.
Click here for the Revised Tokyo 2020 Qualification System that was published on 25 February 2021. Another statement by the BWF surrounding Olympic qualification will be issued soon.
Players from Australia and New Zealand will be eagerly awaiting the further statement to be provided by the BWF, as they wait in limbo to hear about their chances for qualification.
The remaining tournaments (in India, Malaysia and Singapore) were of particular importance to New Zealand’s Abhinav Manota, Oliver Leydon-Davis and Anona Pak who were planning to compete in the three (all postponed) tournaments to improve their Olympic ranking and chances of earning a position in Tokyo’s men’s and mixed doubles draws respectively.
In the current Road To Tokyo rankings, Australia’s Wendy Chen (women’s singles), Gronya Somerville and Setyana Mapasa (women’s doubles) and Abhinav Manota (men’s singles) all sit within an Olympic qualifying position – check out the current Road To Tokyo rankings here.
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.
More, Teitiria Utimawa and Tinabora Takeiaki (from Kiribati) were potential contenders for a place in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, through the Tripartite Commission, which allows for participation by athletes from National Olympic Committees who would, through normal qualification processes, have little or no representation at the Games. However, the process has been thrown off its course as the postponement and cancellation of multiple Olympic qualifying events did not allow them to meet the minimum criteria of competing at a set number of tournament.
BWF will issue a further statement on Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games qualifying at a later date.
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