Badminton Asia has cancelled its mixed team championships which were set to be held in Wuhan next week due to many governments imposing travel restrictions and quarantine requirements on players, the continental body said on Wednesday.
Badminton Asia added that the timing of the championships, which are not part of the Olympic qualification process for Tokyo, was also a contributing factor for their decision.
"In this ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, many Asian governments are still imposing strict travel restrictions and quarantine requirements to those entering the respective countries," Badminton Asia said in a statement.
"Players who participated in the Asian leg (1 and 2) and the World Tour Finals held from the Jan. 12-31 in Bangkok, Thailand will have to conduct a two-week mandatory quarantine after returning from these events.
"Unfortunately, this means that the players are unable to participate in events in close proximity to these dates, as the hosting member associations are imposing strict quarantine requirements."
The mixed team championships was set to determine the qualifiers for the Sudirman Cup Finals later this year.
Badminton Asia said global governing body BWF had concluded that if any continental qualification tournaments are not held, continental confederations will be represented by teams after taking world rankings into consideration.
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
