Badminton: German Open cancelled, Vietnam international postponed due to coronavirus threat

Badminton tournaments across the world continue to be affected by the coronavirus outbreak that has its epicentre in Wuhan, China, with the organisers of German Open Super 300 tournament announcing that the event is cancelled while Badminton World Federation postponing the Vietnam International from March to June.

The German Open was to be played in Mülheim an der Ruhr from March 3-8 while the Vietnam International Challenge meet was to be held in Hanoi from March 24-29.

Last week’s Spain Masters Super 300 event was also affected due to the coronavirus outbreak as the Chinese contingent had to pull out at the last minute. The Chinese Badminton Association had, however, announced that none of their players were found positive for the virus and were cleared to play the German Open, All England and Swiss Open next month.

However, the German Open organisers on Wednesday announced the cancellation of the tournament after the virus has been reported to be spreading across Europe.

“After medical advice and a mutual decision process, we cancelled the event at the scheduled time.
Based on the current situation, the Mülheim health office recommended that the event be cancelled and postponed to a later date. We followed the recommendation”, Mülheim’s Sports and Health Director, Marc Buchholz, was quoted as saying by Badminton Europe.

A day earlier, BWF had put out a statement stating that they have postponed the Vietnam International to June 2-7 due to the virus threat on the advice of the Vietnam Sports Administration.

“Considering the new 2-7 June date, ranking points from this event will no longer contribute to Olympic qualifying as it will be outside the qualification window,” the BWF statement said.

Earlier this month, BWF had postponed the China Master Super 100 event to May.

While none of the top Indian players were to participate in China Masters, a big contingent was expected to take part in the German Open with the Olympic qualification hopes of the likes of Saina Nehwal, K Srikanth and other hanging on their performance in the European circuit in March.