Whether September’s Yonex Taipei Open badminton tournament is to go ahead has been thrown into doubt, with international players expressing reluctance to travel due to Taiwan’s quarantine regulations, governing body the CTBA said yesterday.
Doubts about participating in the tournament were raised by international players when they realized that regulations mandate all incoming overseas players would be required to stay in Taiwan for 14 days before they can leave the nation, regardless of how well they perform in the tournament, CTBA deputy director Chen Shih-chieh said.
The Central Epidemic Command Center’s regulations state that international players would initially have to stay at a quarantine hotel in Taoyuan for five days before being tested for COVID-19, Chen said.
Should the result come back negative, the player would be allowed to compete in the tournament, but would need to stay for 14 days, when they would be tested again, and would only allowed to leave if the result remained negative, Chen added.
“This has raised a lot of concerns from international players, as they cannot choose to leave if they happen to lose or drop out of the tournament,” Chen told the Central News Agency.
Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) general secretary Dato’ Kenny Goh Chee Keong on Saturday said that the association would not send a team if Taiwan enforces a “two-week mandatory quarantine” for overseas players.
Malaysian mixed doubles pairing Peng Soon and Goh Liu Ying, who are ranked seventh in the world and were semi-finalists in Taipei last year, have expressed their support for the decision.
“Our stand is the same as the BAM. If we are needed to undergo a 14-day quarantine upon arrival, then most likely we are not going,” Peng Soon told Malaysian English-language newspaper the Star on Sunday.
In Taipei, the Sports Administration said it was “understandable” that overseas players are hesitant about competing in the tournament, as many major sporting events have been canceled or postponed due to the pandemic.
The Gwangju Korea Masters, originally scheduled for Nov. 24 to Nov. 29, is the latest World Tour tournament to have been canceled, the Badminton World Federation (BWF) said.
The CTBA is inclined to cancel this year’s tournament, while the BWF has asked the association to postpone the event, a source familiar with the matter said.
The Sports Administration said that the CTBA and BWF are still holding talks on the matter.
The BWF Super 300 Yonex Taipei Open is scheduled to be held from Sept. 1 to Sept. 6 at the Taipei Arena.
Fred Kerley is competing unaugmented against drug-fuelled athletes at this weekend’s Enhanced Games and still hopes to race in the 2028 Olympics, the suspended former 100m world champion said on Friday. Arguably the biggest name at the divisive event in Las Vegas, where doping is permitted, the US sprinter said he had chosen not to take any of the banned substances including testosterone and steroids that his competitors have been using. “I don’t need it. God gave me fast feet for a reason. And I’m here to showcase my talent,” Kerley said. Kerley last September became the first US competitor and first track
MLB is experiencing an epidemic of guys being dudes. At ballparks all across the US, groups consisting of mostly young men are joining in on the “Tarps Off” trend that is loud, goofy, infectious and new to the baseball world. Joining in on the fun is simple: Go to the section where the party is happening, take off your shirt and start twirling it above your head. Soccer-like chants or singing usually follow — injecting a jolt of energy for a sport that is occasionally chided for its lack of energy inside the stadium. After getting its start in St Louis, Missouri, on
Hull City AFC are to play Middlesbrough for a place in the Premier League after Southampton on Wednesday failed in their appeal against expulsion from the Championship playoff final for spying on opponents. Southampton were thrown out of the final on Tuesday and handed a four-point deduction for next season after they had beaten semi-final opponents Middlesbrough. “The original sanction of expulsion ... remains in place, as does the four-point deduction to be applied to the 2026/27 Championship table and the reprimand in respect of all charges,” the English Football League said in a statement. The final is to be played at Wembley
INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL: Officials, players and fans winging across all of North America are likely to make this the most polluting World Cup ever, say scientists The largest and likely most lucrative ever World Cup this summer could set a record for the most-polluting sporting event in history, environmental experts say. “Unlike the case of the Olympic Games, where the carbon footprints have been reducing over the last several editions, this is totally opposite in the case of FIFA men’s World Cup,” said David Gogishvili, a geographer at the University of Lausanne (Unil). The summer’s World Cup has been expanded to 48 teams for the first time. It is being played in three countries — Mexico, Canada and the US — for the first time. It is going to
RSS