Indian contingent cleared to take part in All England Championships | Badminton News – Times of India

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BIRMINGHAM: The Indian badminton contingent has been cleared to participate in the All England Championships after the players, who had tested positive for COVID-19, returned negative in retests conducted by the governing body (BWF) on Wednesday.
Three Indian shuttlers and a support staff had tested positive on Tuesday while a few were awaiting confirmation on their inconclusive samples, leaving the players without much practice ahead of the tournament.
“No positive tests in the team anyone. We are ready for All England,” wrote India’s Danish foreign coach Mathais Boe in a post in Instagram.

In an email to team managers on Wednesday, the Badminton World Federation (BWF) and Badminton England also informed that “following further investigations and testing, all team members have been returned to the draw having successfully retested negative.”
It also said that “following a higher-than-expected number of inconclusive and positive tests, a full investigation into the testing and laboratory process was conducted in consultation with representatives from Public Health England and the testing companies involved.
“During the process of that investigation, sufficient doubt was raised over the accuracy of the batches of tests submitted by Badminton England, that it was deemed appropriate to retest.
“Following the retest and further investigations, it has been determined that the result of the retest will be one used.”
Earlier, BWF and Badminton England had delayed the start of the event by a couple of hours following a “significant number” of inconclusive COVID-19 test results.
The prestigious Super 1000 tournament was earlier scheduled to start at 9 am GMT.
The Indian campaign was thrown into chaos on Tuesday after reports emerged that three players and a support staff had tested positive for COVID-19.
India’s badminton couple Saina Nehwal and Parupalli Kashyap were also left confused less than 24 hours before the start of the tournament after the latter’s tests for COVID-19 came “inconclusive”.
Saina too is waiting for her results for her COVID-19 tests and the duo had taken to Twitter to express their displeasure.

Saina and HS Prannoy had to go through a similar experience in Thailand in January when they had returned positive in a COVID-19 test but was cleared to compete later after further investigation.
Last October, Lakshya Sen alongwith Ajay Jayaram and Shubhankar Dey were forced out of the SaarLorLux Open after DK Sen had tested positive for COVID-19.



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Swiss Open: Sindhu, Srikanth advance; Lakshya, Prannoy lose | Badminton News – Times of India

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Indian shuttlers had a good day at the Swiss Open BWF Super-300 tournament in Basel on Wednesday.
PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth, Ajay Jayaram, Sourabh Verma and the men’s doubles duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty and women’s doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Sikki Reddy won their first round matches. However, HS Prannoy lost 19-21, 21-9, 17-21 to Mark Caljouw of the Netherlands. A little while later, Lakshya Sen lost to Victor Svendsen of Denmark 16-21, 21-12.
While Sindu defeated Neslihan Yigit of Turkey 21-16, 21-19, Srikanth recovered after losing the first game to beat his practice partner Sameer Verma 18-21, 21-18, 21-11. Srikanth will face Thomas Rouxel of France in the second round on Thursday. Second seed Sindhu will face world No.40 Iris Wang of USA in the second round.
Sourabh Verma had an easy 21-19, 21-18 victory against qualifier Christian Kirchmayr of Switzerland. He will face three-time world junior champion Kunlavut Vitidsarin of Thailand in the pre-quarterfinals.
Ajay Jayaram had it easy against Sitthikom Thammasin of Thailand. The Mumbai shuttler will square up against third seed Rasmus Gemke of Denmark.
Meanwhile, second seeds Satwik and Chirag suffered a minor scare against Grimley twins — Matthew and Christopher. The world No.10 Indians overcame a mid-match slump before prevailing over the world No.62 pair from Scotland 21-18, 19-21, 21-16.
The Indians dominated the Scots in the third. They secured an early lead of 6-2 and gave no chance to their opponents. In the second round they will play unseeded Indonesians Pramudya Kusumawardana and Yeremia Erich Yoche Yacob Rambitan.
In the women’s doubles Ashwini Ponnappa and Sikki Reddy survived some anxious moments towards the end of the second game before defeating Annabella Jaeger and Stine Kuspert of Germany 21-5, 21-19.
Indian results:
Men’s singles (Rd I): 4-Kidambi Srikanth bt Sameer Verma 18-21, 21-18, 21-11; Sourabh Verma bt Chirstian Kirchmayr (Sui) 21-19, 21-18; Mark Caljouw (Ned) bt HS Prannoy 21-19, 9-21, 21-17; Ajay Jayaram bt Sitthikom Thammasin (Tha) 21-12, 21-13; Lakshya Sen lost to Victor Svendsen (Den) 16-21, 12-21.
Women’s singles: PV Sindhu bt Neslihan Yigit (Tur) 21-16, 21-19.
Men’s doubles: 2-Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty bt Christopher Grimley/Matthew Grimley (Sco) 21-18, 19-21, 21-16.
Women’s doubles: Ashwini Ponnappa/Sikki Reddy bt Annabella Jaeger/Stine Kuspert (Ger) 21-5, 21-19.

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