Badminton Scoring Changes; Table Tennis Allocates Championships

The World Badminton Federation announced it is looking to overhaul the sport’s scoring system at the annual members forum this Friday.

The forum will take place in New Delhi and is the first discussion on potential scoring rule changes since 2006. That year the federation adopted the "rally point scoring system," which is still in place today.

Last week, the BWF’s Athlete’s Commission was polled on potential new scoring systems, and the results will impact the decisions taken at the member’s forum.

"There have been various developments [regarding] scoring which, as an international federation, we think the time is right to discuss with our members," BWF secretary general Thomas Lund said in a statement ahead of the meeting.

"It is designed to start a dialogue and consultation with our members on what we have now as a system and how this could be improved so generations to come continue enjoying badminton at its best."

Table Tennis Allocates Future Events

Bangkok, Dubai, and Bridgetown, Barbados were allocated future International Table Tennis Federation events at the ITTF World Championships in Tokyo, Monday.

Bangkok will host the GAC Group 2014 World Tour Grand Finals, which the federation calls "the most lucrative table tennis event on earth." The World Tour Grand Finals are scheduled for December 11-14, 2014.

Dubai will host the 2015 World Team Cup on January 8-11, and Bridgetown will host the 2014 World Cadet Challenge on October 23-November 1.

Sledge Hockey Revamps PyeongChang Qualification

A new competition cycle was released by the International Paralympic Committee for the 2015-2018 Olympic Cycle.

The A and B pool World Championships will take place in 2015 and 2017. In 2016 the debut of a C pool world championship will allow for new sledge hockey nations to compete against one another to gain promotion to the B pool.

An Olympic qualification tournament will take place in 2017 consisting of the bottom three teams in the 2017 A pool and the top 3 teams in the 2017 B pool. The top two or three finishers, depending on South Korea’s status, will advance to the 2018 Paralympics in PyeongChang.

Regional championships will be potentially added in 2016.

Gymnastics Adds New Federations

The Central African Republic has been provisionally admitted as an associate member to the International Gymnastics Federation at the FIG Council in Kuwait.

FIG also added Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Uganda, Sudan, and Zambia as affiliate federations. The status of the affiliates will be determined at the 2014 FIG Congress in Taskent, Uzbekistan.

Written by Aaron Bauer

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