Concerned about the spread of COVID-19 pandemic, the Badminton World Federation (BWF) has decided to stop organizing all tournaments for a long time. In a statement released on Friday, March 13, BWF decided to postpone the entire tournament from March 16 – at the end of the All England Open Badminton Championships – to April 12 to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Nguyen Thuy Linh will be participating in the Olympic for the first time.
This announcement means that all BWF tournaments such as World Tour, Super 100, International Challenge, International Series and Future Series scheduled for the time are canceled and this decision also means that the results of 2020 Olympic badminton qualification are considered fixed early, not until April 30.
COVID-19 “helped” Nguyen Thuy Linh to complete early the Olympic 2020 roadmap when certainly, she is one of the top qualified players to travel to Tokyo.
Before BWF announced the postponement of all badminton competitions, Vu Thi Trang and Nguyen Thuy Linh were competing fiercely for the sole representative of Vietnam to attend the women’s singles.
Until the end of the weekend, Nguyen Thuy Linh ranked 44th, holding the 25th position of the women’s singles for the 2020 Olympic Games. Vu Thi Trang ranked 46th with a difference of 711 points. But now, when COVID-19 has spread globally and BWF decided that the Olympic qualification must end soon, Vu Thi Trang no longer has the opportunity to compete with Nguyen Thuy Linh.
With the current score, Nguyen Thuy Linh has certainly ranked among the top players eligible to participate in the 2020 Olympic Games. This is a worthy result for the Hanoi tennis player because of her relentless efforts for 2 years. She will attend the Olympics for the first time.
In addition to Nguyen Thuy Linh, the decision of the BWF also helps Nguyen Tien Minh to hold the men’s singles in Tokyo 2020. Tien Minh is currently ranked 63rd in the world and ranked 28th in the list of more than 40 players who are eligible to attend Olympic.
ranked 28th in the list of more than 40 players who are eligible Olympic qualification.
On April 26, the new BWF finalized the list of eligible players. However, with the current safe score, Nguyen Tien Minh (men’s singles) and Nguyen Thuy Linh (women’s singles) have the tickets for Olympic.
The current Vietnamese athletes who have won the tickets for 2020 Olympic Games include Nguyen Tien Minh and Nguyen Thuy Linh (badminton), Nguyen Van Duong (boxing), Nguyen Huy Hoang (swimming), Le Thanh Tung (fitness), Do Thi Anh Nguyet and Hoang Phi Vu (archery).
Ngoc Dung