Yonex Thailand Open: Hong Kong shuttlers will pull out if they find playing conditions unsafe, says head coach

Hong Kong shuttlers will pull out of the event if they feel unsafe playing as Covid-19 continues to batter the Yonex Thailand Open, the first of three back-to-back events in Bangkok as the Badminton World Federation attempts to restart the world tour amid the pandemic.

“Our foremost concern is the safety of our players and we will not hesitate to pull them out of the event if there is any potential risk,” said head coach Tim He Yiming. “The organisers have set up a ‘bubble’ to guarantee safety for all the participants, but it seems there is hole in the bubble from what happened over the last couple of days. We have to take all possible precautionary measures.”

On Thursday, Hong Kong’s mixed doubles pair Tang Chun-man and Tse Ying-suet pulled out of their round of 16 match against German duo Mark Lamsfuss and Isabel Herttrich after their coach tested positive for Covid-19 the previous night. Organisers later announced they would allow the German players to continue at the tournament.

“We have appealed to the organisers that the German players are close contacts of their coach and should not be allowed to play,” said the coach. “However, they said the players and their coach do not stay in the same room so they rejected our appeal. This is against our own health guidelines so we have no choice but to forfeit the match to avoid any potential danger.”

On Wednesday night, the BWF sent out a press release, saying: “We can confirm that one German coach and a team entourage member from France who are participating in the Asian leg of the HSBC BWF World Tour in Bangkok, Thailand are positive for Covid-19 ... All players tested on Tuesday have returned a negative result.”