An international badminton competition due to take place this spring in Japan has been cancelled, organisers said Saturday, the latest sporting event to be hit by virus travel restrictions just six months before the Tokyo Olympics. The Yonex Osaka International Challenge for young players was called off “because it is difficult to host foreign players” under current immigration rules, the Nippon Badminton Association said.
An association spokesman told AFP that he was concerned about the fate of other badminton competitions used as qualifiers for the Olympics.
“We are worried about whether competitions scheduled for March onwards — which will be used as part of the selection process for Olympic athletes — will be held as scheduled,” he said on condition of anonymity. The cancelled competition had been scheduled to take place from March 31 to April 4. Large parts of Japan including Tokyo and the western city of Osaka are under a state of emergency to tackle a spike in coronavirus cases, with borders closed to almost all foreigners with no exception for athletes. The first Tokyo Olympics test event of 2021, an artistic swimming competition scheduled for March, was postponed on Thursday for two months — also because of travel restrictions.