China will mark its return as a host of international sporting events when the Badminton World Tour Finals are staged in the country after two years of disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Badminton World Federation (BWF) confirmed China as the host on Thursday.
Guangzhou has been chosen as the city to host the World Tour Finals from December 14th to 18th which will feature the top eight badminton players and pairs in each category with a prize pool of $1.5 million on the line, the biggest the event has ever offered according to BWF.
The World Tour Finals 2020 and 2021 were also scheduled to take place in China but had to be reassigned due to the Covid restrictions implemented by the country.
BWF Secretary General Thomas Lund said the finals were one of the body’s most lucrative tournaments and thanked the Chinese government for extending the invitation.
“Unfortunately, it was not possible to move forward with plans to stage the two tournaments in Changzhou and Fuzhou,”.
November’s Hong Kong Open, though, has already been cancelled for the third straight year due to the complex quarantine measures still in place in order to deal with Covid.
China had to significantly tighten its Covid policies this year to curb the spread of the Omicron variant leading to the cancellation of several sporting events including the Football Asia Cup, the Asian Para games and the Asian games among others.
With the country slowly heading towards normalcy, China is expected to once again host many international events.
