On the evening of the 22nd Beijing time, this season's Swiss Open Badminton Championships were unveiled in Basel. At the same time, the Chinese Badminton Association issued an official statement saying that in the routine nucleic acid test of the new crown virus before the start of the competition, some athletes of the Chinese team tested positive. In order to protect the health of athletes, the Chinese team collectively withdrew from the competition.
It is understood that after the All England Open, which has experienced loose epidemic prevention measures, the total number of players from various teams who have withdrawn from the Swiss tournament has approached 50. Poor epidemic prevention not only endangers the health of the participants, but also causes losses to the quality and reputation of the event itself.
Screenshot of the official WeChat public account of the China Badminton Association
The Yu Association has activated the emergency plan
In 2022, at the beginning of the new Olympic cycle, the BWF events have also fully resumed. In order to enhance the experience of young players and compete for world ranking points, Guoyu went to Europe at the beginning of this month and began a six-month-long "Wandering Earth" journey.
According to the plan, during the "wandering" period, in addition to traveling around the world to compete, Kuniyu will also set up a training camp in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and will be stationed in the local training area when there is no competition. This is the first time in the history of the national feathers to train abroad for a long time, and it is also a new exploration of the association and the team in a special period.
The first stop of The National Feather's trip was three "back-to-back" European events. In the German Open, which took the lead, the team won 2 gold and 3 silver, fully demonstrating the results of winter training. Subsequently, Guo Yu moved to Birmingham, England, to participate in the Super 1000 level event known as the "Little World Championship" - the All England Open, but during the period He Bingjiao, Lu Guangzu, Liu Xuanxuan / Xia Yuting and other players have retired from the tournament, and the team has only won two runners-up in the end.
After two consecutive races, some members of the national feather team have developed symptoms of colds and fevers, and their competitive status and physical functions have declined. On the 22nd, according to the latest official event information, Chinese players have withdrawn from the Swiss Open that they originally registered. In the afternoon, the BWF officially confirmed that a number of players withdrew from the station due to infection with the new crown virus: "The Chinese Badminton Association also reported some positive test results and player injuries, and decided to withdraw from the competition collectively. ”
According to the statement released by the Chinese Badminton Association that night, the association has launched an emergency plan for the first time, and will provide full support and protection for the team from the aspects of medical treatment, psychology and life.
Lu Guangzu reached the quarter-finals of the All England Tournament and then withdrew from the quarter-finals. Image source: BWF official Weibo
Tossing and turning is a matter of preparation
After the Tokyo Olympic Games and the Shaanxi National Games last year, Guoyu immediately went to Europe to participate in several competitions, and after returning to China, he was quarantined for 21 days according to regulations to prepare for the World Championships, which not only missed the three events held in Bali, Indonesia, but also had a certain impact on the competitive status of athletes.
Today, the new Olympic cycle of "shrinking" into three years has begun, and there are a large number of new people and new combinations in the team who urgently need to participate in the competition to earn points. Under the premise of not violating the national epidemic prevention policy, from the perspective of preparing for the Paris Olympic Games, Guoyu really needs to formulate a new training model. Therefore, after the approval of the superiors, the Chinese Badminton Association decided to establish a training camp in Chiang Mai as a transit point for the team to compete in international competitions in the next six months.
Long-term training and competition overseas, of course, there are risks of epidemic prevention. In this regard, Zhang Jun, chairman of the China Badminton Association, said before his departure that the epidemic situation abroad is indeed grim, but participating in the competition is an extremely urgent need for the team at present. So despite the risks, the team chose to fit into the trend of the times and participate in international competitions.
At the same time, Zhang Jun stressed that during the period of going abroad, the whole team must face the challenge with the most rigorous epidemic prevention attitude and behavior. Before departure, Guoyu held a number of meetings to emphasize the details of epidemic prevention, in addition to carrying the necessary epidemic prevention supplies, the team also strictly requires athletes to do a good job of self-management, try not to go to public places, hotels, venues "two points and one line", do not take off masks when outside.
In 2019, the Chinese team participated in the Swiss Open for the most recent time, and Chen Yufei (left) won the women's singles championship. Image source: BWF official Weibo
The epidemic prevention environment is almost invincible
Despite this, Kuniyu was unfortunate to be "hit". In fact, not only the Chinese team, but also many participants were infected during last week's All England Tournament, including South Korea's women's singles player Ahn Hyun-ying and ST Men's Singles World Championship champion and Singaporean champion Luo Jianyou, which is one of the most infected events since the epidemic.
Last year, Guoyu went abroad to participate three times, and due to the "bubble" form of the event, coupled with strict self-requirements, the teams achieved "zero infection". In contrast, last week's All England Competition's participation process, on-site operation, audience size, etc. have returned to the pre-epidemic state, and the participants only need to take a nucleic acid test on the day of arrival in the competition area, and then they can go to the venue by themselves, and the audience can also enter normally. On the last two days of the competition, the audience was almost full, and few people wore masks. At the same time, the local epidemic prevention policy in the United Kingdom has also been almost completely cancelled. In the hotel where Kuniwa stayed, the central air conditioning is still running 24 hours.
In such an environment, the Chinese team is obviously facing huge pressure to prevent the epidemic. To this end, the team took a lot of protective measures, such as requiring the team members not to interact closely with the audience after the game, but still failed to retreat.
At present, the Chinese team is resting in Basel. The team members who tested positive were mild, and after a few days of rest, most of them had improved significantly. According to the plan, the team will then return to Asia to participate in several open tournaments, The Tangyou Cup in Thailand, and the World Championships in Japan, until they return to China before the Hangzhou Asian Games. The Chinese Badminton Association said in a statement: I believe that the Chinese team will return to the field in a better state and continue to work hard in the next international competitions.