Badminton Postponements Reach Europe - Federation Focus

(ATR) The coronavirus outbreak takes two more Tokyo Olympic qualifiers for badminton off the board.

The Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Wednesday confirmed the YONEX German Open 2020 in Mülheim an der Ruhr will no longer take place on its scheduled dates of March 3-8.

The BWF announcement followed the city of Mülheim’s decision to cancel the event, due to restrictions in place over the threat of COVID-19.

The federation says "no concrete plans or decisions have been made in regards to the immediate future of the tournament other than that it won’t occur next week".

The tournament is a Super 300 event on the HSBC BWF World Tour as well as being an Olympic qualifier.

Also on Wednesday, the Polish Badminton Association (PBA) postponed the Polish Open 2020, an upcoming Badminton Europe circuit tournament.

The PBA cited "the growing sanitary and epidemiological threat posed by Covid-19 (Coronavirus)" for the decision.

The tournament, scheduled for Krakow on March 26-29, was also a qualifying event for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

New dates are being earmarked but the tournament will no longer fall inside the Olympic qualification period.

Around the Rings reported on Tuesday that an Olympic qualifying badminton tournament scheduled for March 24-29 in Vietnam was postponed. The new dates, June 2-7, fall outside the qualification window.

African Boxers Qualify For Tokyo 2020

The first of five boxing qualifying events for Tokyo 2020 wraps up later this week in Dakar, Senegal.

The Dakar Arena is the venue as 218 athletes from 39 countries compete for 33 Olympic quota places. The event, which began on Feb. 20 and runs through Feb. 29, is organized by the IOC Boxing Task Force (BTF) in cooperation with Dakar’s Local Organizing Committee (LOC) and the Senegalese National Olympic Committee.

The BTF took charge of the Tokyo 2020 boxing tournament, including qualifying, after the Olympic boxing federation AIBA was suspended by the IOC last summer.

The Olympic Channel will cover all five Boxing Qualifying Events, including live streaming of all women’s and men’s bouts across all weight categories from the first day of competition through to the finals for each event.

The next event, for Asia and Oceania, will be in Amman, Jordan from March 3-11.

Jordan was chosen as a replacement host late last month after the event was moved from China due to the coronavirus outbreak.

World Athletics appoints Director of Competition and Events

Jakob Larsen is the new Director of Competition and Events for World Athletics.

Following a worldwide search which began at the end of last year, the 50-year-old native of Denmark was selected from among 74 candidates representing more than 20 countries.

Larsen has spent the last 12 years as CEO of the Danish Athletic Federation. He impressed World Athletics in leading the organizing committee behind the innovative and challenging World Athletics Cross Country course in Aarhus, Denmark last year.

"Jakob’s skills and experience across our sport are rare and valuable," World Athletics CEO Jon Ridgeon said in a statement. "He combines incredible knowledge of athletics, having run a Member Federation, hosted world championships, one-day meetings, park and road events, with creativity and innovation which is critical to the journey we are on to grow athletics."

"It is a dream come true and I am looking forward to being part of the team that creates and delivers the changes that will see athletics grow from strength to strength," Larsen said.

As part of his role, Larsen will take over the chair of the newly-formed Global Calendar Unit from Ridgeon. Its aim is to create a 3-4 year long-term, constantly updated global calendar to make the competition schedule across the globe easier to understand and follow for all stakeholders.

Larsen will take up his position in early April at the World Athletics headquarters in Monaco.

Meet Spiky the Hedgehog

Spiky the Hedgehog unveiled as the official mascot of the 2021 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship.

The announcement was made at the headquarters of the Belarus NOC in Minsk on Monday. The tournament is being co-hosted by Belarus and Latvia.

More than 100 applications were submitted by both professional artists and ice hockey fans.

The decision process included input from both a "star jury" and the general public. In the end, the DAB Creative Agency was brought in by organizers to design a mascot that combined elements from the most popular entries, which included a hedgehog, two raccoons and a beetle.

The hedgehog is one of the most popular characters in Belarusian and Latvian mythology and that played a large part in the end product.

"The Hedgehog is our hero. Comparing its character and qualities with ice hockey, we realized that the image of the hedgehog is very suitable for both of our national teams - hardworking, fast, agile, capable of standing up to the opponent at the ice rink when needed," said DAB Creative Agency Director Nikita Ustinovich.

The championship will take place in Minsk and the Latvian capital of Riga from May 7-23 of next year.

Written by Gerard Farek

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