MUMBAI (Reuters) – The Indonesia Open was among a host of badminton events that have been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Badminton World Federation said on Monday.
The Indonesia Open, which was scheduled to be held in Jakarta during June 16-21, is one of the three BWF Super-1000 category events scheduled during the year.
While the All England Open was held as scheduled at Birmingham in March, the fate of the third Super-1000 event in China in September is yet to be decided.
Tournaments were also suspended in Australia, Thailand and Russia among other countries as the BWF announced a suspension of events for the next three months.
“The escalation of the COVID-19 pandemic globally has led all parties to confirm the suspension of these tournaments,” the governing body said in a statement.
“The health, safety and wellbeing of all athletes, their entourage, officials and the greater badminton community remains the top priority.”
The organisation froze its world rankings for the players last week and said it was also evaluating the impact of the rescheduling of the Tokyo Olympics to 2021 due to the pandemic.
“This review process is expected to take several weeks upon which BWF will make a further announcement,” it added.
(Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly; editing by Christian Radnedge)
