The Hindu : SEA Grand Prix events postponed

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 21, 2003

Sport

Sport - Badminton

SEA Grand Prix events postponed

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE May. 20. Close on the heels of the postponement of the World Championship at Birmingham due to SARS scare, the South East Asian Grand Prix events scheduled to be held in Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia have been postponed at the request of the organising associations.

According to Mr.Steven Yeo, Secretary of the Singapore Badminton Association, SBA has sought postponement and re-scheduling the Five Star, $ 170,000 championship, slated to be held by SBA from June 16 to 22 as the players and officials from other regions are still nervous of travelling and mingling with their counterparts in the SARS affected areas.

The postponement was very much on cards ever since the cancellation of the World Championship.

Mr..Yeo said: " Further delay on the part of SBA would cause to inconvenience to the players and the officials, besides the volunteers and sponsors and all those who have stake in the event''.

The Malaysian and Indonesian Badminton Associations too have concurred with SBA's view and joined in its appeal to seek postponement.

The Indonesian Open was scheduled to be held from June 23 to 29 and Malaysian Open was slated from July 1 to 6.

The IBF, in its reaction, said , the Federation has no option but to go along with the views of the three associations and it would closely work with them to fix alternate dates for the three events.

It is likely that they may be played in August. Incidentally the England Badminton Association , the host for World Championship also had sought alternative dates in August.

The IBF surely faces a ticklish task of accommodating and completing all these major events , before the Olympic qualifying cut-off , which falls on April 30, 2004.

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