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(Reuters) – The Badminton World Federation (BWF) said on Friday that Tokyo Olympics hopefuls will have until June 15 to secure qualification for the Games after a number of World Tour events were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Malaysia Open, which was initially scheduled for March 31-April 4, has been pushed back to May 25-30, while April’s Malaysia Masters has been postponed until further notice.
The Singapore Open has also been pushed back by two months and will now be held from June 1-6.
“In securing new dates for the Malaysia Open and Singapore Open, BWF confirms the Indonesia Masters 2021 and Indonesia Open 2021 have been postponed also,” the BWF said in a statement.
Rankings at the end of April should have been the cut-off to decide which players will be at the Tokyo Games, due to begin on July 23.
However, the BWF’s Race to Tokyo standings will now close on June 15, with the Singapore Open serving as the last tournament for qualification.
Players were allowed to keep ranking points earned during the original Olympic qualification period before the novel coronavirus pandemic forced the Games to be pushed back by a year.
The Race to Tokyo is set to resume at next month’s Swiss Open.
(Reporting by Hardik Vyas in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
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