The India Open Super 500 tournament, a crucial event for the Tokyo Olympic qualification, will be held without any spectators due to the global novel coronavirus outbreak, Badminton Association of India (BAI) said on Wednesday. The $400,000 tournament was under threat in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, which has claimed over 4000 lives and infected more than 100,000 people globally.
However, BAI and the Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Wednesday issued a joint statement, making it clear that the event will go ahead as originally planned adding that precautionary measures will be taken for the smooth conduct of the tournament.
“The YONEX-SUNRISE India Open 2020 to be staged in New Delhi from 24-29 March will go ahead as planned,” the statement said.
“Enhanced precautionary measures will be in place to ensure the welfare and safety of players, their entourage and officials.” One of the precautions taken by the organisers is to restrict the entry of people inside the stadium.
“The India Open will be held as planned at the KD Jadhav stadium in Indira Gandhi Indoor stadium but to ensure safety of everybody we have decided not to allow any spectator this time,” BAI General Secretary, Ajay K Singhania said.
“Fans can watch the matches on YouTube for the initial days while Hotstar will show the matches from quarterfinal onwards,” he said.
After India Open, the Malaysia Open World Tour Super 750 (March 31-April 5) and Singapore Open World Tour Super 500 (April 7-12) are the only two major events which fall inside the April 28 deadline for Olympic qualification.