Overnight, the Badminton World Federation (BWF) has announced an adjusted tournament calendar for the remainder of 2020, confirming that the Barfoot & Thompson New Zealand Badminton Open for 2020 is cancelled.
Initially rescheduled to October following the outbreak of Covid-19, the event has now been cancelled - a decision that was made jointly by Badminton New Zealand and the BWF, in light of the ongoing restrictions to international travel and large gatherings.
Badminton New Zealand Chief Executive Joe Hitchcock acknowledged the hard work and countless hours contributed towards this event by staff and volunteers.
We greatly appreciate the work, time and effort our team has put into preparing for this event. It is a sad time for us and our badminton community who love this event. We will miss the opportunity to come together this year, but we will be back.
The HSBC BWF World Tour for the remainder of the year looks vastly different, with two legs of three events each, to take place in Denmark and Asia - minimising the impact of travel and isolation periods.
BWF Secretary General Thomas Lund said “Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was not possible to implement the revised international tournament calendar for the HSBC BWF World Tour as originally envisaged. We look forward to the return of international badminton and we thank all parties and participants involved in the planning process.”