Draw for badminton World Championship to be announced Tuesday
By IANSWednesday, July 15, 2009
NEW DELHI - The draw for the World Badminton Championship to be hosted in Hyderabad next month will be unveiled here July 21.
Around 500 participants from 45 countries, including hosts India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Denmark, Japan, China, Sweden, Vietnam, England and Thailand, will compete in the Aug 10-16 event.
This is the first time that India will be hosting a World Championship event for an Olympic sport in over 20 years.
“It is a privilege for us to organise the World Championship. It is a landmark sporting event to be held in India,” said V.K. Verma, president, Badminton Association of India.
The big guns of world badminton will participate in the competition.
The men’s singles draw will feature World No.1 Lee Chong Wei (Malaysia), No.2 Jin Chen (China), No.3 Peter Gade (Denmark), No.4 Taufik Hidayat (Indonesia) and No.5 Lin Dan (China), among others.
In the womens singles, World No.1 Mi Zhou (Hong Kong), No.4 Yihan Wang (China) and India’s Saina Newhal, ranked No.6, will be among the top shuttlers taking part.
There will be a lot of Indian interest in the tournament. A huge pool of Indian players who have produced good results on the international stage will be eager to shine on the home turf.
Saina, fresh from her maiden Super Series victory in Indonesia, will lead the pack in the women’s singles.
Besides Saina, Aditi Mutatkar and Sayali Gokhale will be looking for an easy draw to score upset wins.
The men’s singles will have World No.15 Chetan Anand, Arvind Bhat (No.25) and P. Kashyap (No.33) representing India.
In men’s doubles, Sanave Thomas and Rupesh Kumar, ranked 19, K. Tharun Reddy and Arun Vishnu, and Akshay Dewalkar and Jishnu Sanyal will compete.
In mixed doubles draw, Jwala Gutta and V. Diju, ranked No.8, and Arun Vishnu and Aparna Balan will feature.
Sports Minister M.S. Gill, Indian Olympic Association president Suresh Kalmadi, Commonwealth Games Federation President Mike Fennell and Badminton World Federation (BWF) deputy president Sindhushree Khullar will be present during the announcement of the draw.
