BWF World Championships: Just days before the BWF World Championships is scheduled to start, the Indonesia team has withdrawn from the competition. The decision was taken by the Badminton Association of Indonesia citing the spread of the Omicron variant of the Covid-19 virus. Follow BWF World Championships Live on InsideSport.IN
BWF World Championships: Indonesia team withdraws citing Omicron fear, check details
The spat of withdrawals means it can benefit the Indian men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty as well as the Indian singles players Lakshya Sen, Kidambi Srikanth and HS Prannoy.
“The rapid spread of the Omicron prompted us to withdraw from the World Championships,” said PBSI development and performance division head Rionny Mainaky.
“We don’t want to take any risks. The safety and health of athletes are more important. We have discussed with the players and they agreed to pull out.”
Indonesia’s withdrawal will hit the competition’s glamour hard and the worst affected will be the men’s doubles field.
Tim bulutangkis Indonesia menarik diri dari keikutsertaan ke BWF World Championship 2021 atau Kejuaraan Dunia 2021 yang akan berlangsung di Huelva, Spanyol, pada 12-19 Desember 2021. pic.twitter.com/Vbf8umsz2u
— BADMINTON INDONESIA (@INABadminton) December 8, 2021
BWF World Championships: Indonesia team withdraws citing Omicron fear, check details
Top seeds Kevin Sanjaya-Marcus Fernaldi, second seeds and defending champions Mohammad Ahsan-Hendra Setiawan and sixth seeds Fajar Alfian-Rian Ardianto have all withdrawn.
Other notable absentees include Olympic women’s doubles champions Greysia Polii-Apriyani Rahayu, World No 6 mixed doubles pair Praveen Jordan-Melati Daeva Oktavianti, as well as men’s singles World No 5 Anthony Sinisuka Ginting and World No 7 Jonatan Christie.
BWF World Championships: Indonesia team withdraws citing Omicron fear, check details
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