Pandemic hands Hong Kong shuttlers second shot at Tokyo qualification as Asia Team Championships included in extended Olympic qualifiers
- Hong Kong and China failed to take part this year after travel restrictions by hosts Philippines
- World body adds tournaments from week 1 to 17 next year into qualifiers
Hong Kong badminton has been given a second chance for Olympic qualification at the 2021 Asia Team Championships after world governing body announced a revamped race to Tokyo on Wednesday.
With the 2020 Games pushed back to next summer due to the pandemic outbreak, an extended Olympic qualification period will be introduced in 2021 from week 1-17, including the tournaments that were postponed, cancelled or suspended since March this year.
Those eligible tournaments within the new qualifying period must be completed by May 2, 2021 before the governing body announces the qualified athletes two days later.
In addition, only players from Hong Kong and China will be awarded qualification points from next year’s Asian team event as the two member associations were not able to participate in the 2020 event in Manila.
The 2020 Asia Team Championships were scheduled to take place in Wuhan, China in February but were moved to the Philippines after the coronavirus outbreak in the Central China city in January. However, players from these two teams could not take part due to travel restrictions imposed by the Philippines government.