Para-Badminton Worlds to return to Korea

The Badminton World Federation (BWF) announced Friday that the BWF Para-Badminton World Championships will be returning to Korea in 2017.

The south-eastern port city of Ulsan is to get its first shot at hosting an international badminton event as it was awarded the 11th Para-Badminton Worlds, to take place in November 2017.  The announcement was made in Bilbao, Spain, following a meeting of the BWF Council on the sidelines of the ongoing BWF World Junior Championships.

The Korea Badminton Association for the Disabled (KBAD) has extensive experience with international events of this nature, having hosted the 2009 Para-Badminton (then IBAD) World Championships in Seoul and the 2012 Asian Para-Badminton Championships in Yeoju, as well as being responsible for the para-badminton event at the 2014 Asian Para-Games in Incheon.  The BWF considers the 2017 event of particular importance as para-badminton prepares to make its Paralympic Game debut in Tokyo 2020.

BWF President Poul-Erik Høyer commented on the bids from both the National Paralympic Committee of China and KBAD, saying: “We are honoured to have received two really comprehensive bids which is very promising for the future of the Para-Badminton World Championships.

“The application from the City of Ulsan showed strong public and community engagement and it was clear that the city and community are very much behind the Championships.”

Ulsan, which is the training home of most of Korea’s top wheelchair para-badminton players, is anticipating more athletes from more countries even than Stoke Mandeville in England, which welcomed 232 athletes from 35 nations for the 2015 Para-Badminton World Championships.

Photos: BWF and Don Hearn

To read the full BWF press release, click here