Badminton’s new qualification norm gets green light from Olympic body

NEW DELHI: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has approved Badminton World Federation’s (BWF) qualification criteria for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics with April 29, 2019, marking the start of the qualification period, running until April 26, 2020.

Out of the total quota of 172 places, 164 (82 each for men and women) will be determined through the qualification process while six places in singles (three each for men and women) will be invitation spots.

The remaining two, also in singles (one each for men and women), will be reserved for the hosts.

Each National Olympic Committee (NOC) can have a maximum of two participants per singles category if both are ranked in top-16 and two pairs in each doubles category if both pairs are ranked in top-8 at the end of the qualifying period.

The BWF ranking lists of April 30, 2020, will determine the qualifiers.

The initial number of athletes has been set at 38 for each of the singles categories and 32 (16 pairs) for doubles. The breakup is as follows: 38 places consist of 34 quota spots, three wildcards, and one host country spot. However, there will be no quotas for wildcards for the hosts in doubles.

The 34 quota places will include continental representation. In each singles category, there shall be at least one athlete from each of the five BWF continental confederations.

In doubles, the world ranking will be used to allocate a total of 48 quota places, to the 16 highest-ranked pairs in each category, respecting the maximum quota allocation per NOC per event.

Like singles, each doubles category shall have at least one pair from each of the five BWF continental confederations, provided the pair is ranked within the top-50.

Badminton competition at Tokyo 2020 will be held from July 25 to August 3.