The Singapore Open, the last remaining badminton qualifying tournament for the Tokyo Olympics, has been cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, organisers said on Wednesday.
The tournament, which was scheduled for June 1-6, will not be rescheduled, the Badminton World Federation said in a statement.
“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,” the BWF said.
It added that it would issue a further statement on Olympic games qualifying at a later date.
Singapore’s infection numbers have been very low compared to the rest of the world but officials last week banned spectators at sporting events and tightened travel curbs after discovering several new clusters.
Officials in the city of 5.7 million have reported about 61,000 cases so far and 31 deaths.
As with other sports, the badminton calendar has been thrown into chaos due to the pandemic, with many events cancelled worldwide in the past year.
The only major events to take place in Asia this year were three tournaments held in Bangkok in January.
