The Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Wednesday said it might freeze the world rankings for a while as it works on a “fair solution” to the Olympic qualification process after the COVID-19 pandemic forced a postponement of the Tokyo Games. There have been growing calls for freezing the world rankings with Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal, B Sai Praneeth, Parupalli Kashyap and H S Prannoy expressing their concern.
“For our athletes, we will review any impacts on the Olympic and Paralympic qualification system to ensure a fair solution is found to qualify players for the postponed Games,” BWF said in a statement. “BWF, in the short-term, is also looking into the possibility of freezing World Rankings until international tournaments start again.
“However, we are still working on the technical solution to ensure the freezing and eventual un-freezing of World Rankings works fairly for all players and we will announce this shortly.” Shuttlers in the singles competition have to be inside top-16 of world rankings to qualify for the Olympics. The cut-off for doubles is top-8.
The international badminton calendar has been on hold since the All England Championships earlier this month.