China bids to host 2 more Worlds

The Badminton World Federation (BWF) announced today that they would be making decisions this month on the hosts for the BWF World Championships and the Sudirman Cup Mixed Team World Championships for 2015.  China has bid for both events, and while Dongguan in Guangdong Province, is the only bid being considered for the Sudirman, the World Individual Championships will be a contest between Kunshan, in Jiangsu Province, and Jakarta, Indonesia.

“While Dongguan and Helsingborg are the lone bidders for the Sudirman Cup and World Seniors respectively, they still have to satisfy the Council that they are capable of hosting the tournament to the BWF’s standards and technical specifications,” BWF Secretary General, Thomas Lund was quoted as saying in the federation’s press release.  “We look forward to hearing high-quality presentations from all four bids and to reaching the appropriate decision for each tournament.”

China has already provided the stages and spectators for nearly half of the biggest badminton events of the last five years.  Since winning three gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, China has hosted the Thomas and Uber Cups once, the Sudirman twice, the World Championships once, and the Superseries Finals twice, in addition to the Asian Games, two Asian Championships, and the Universiade.  Indonesia’s only major hosting duties this century have been the Thomas and Uber Cups in 2004 and 2008, as well as two Asian Championships.

The decisions will be made at the BWF Council’s annual meeting in Athens, Greece, after which a formal announcement will be made at the Ledra Marriott Hotel there on November 28th.

The hosts for the 2014 events had been finalized as of last year. Copenhagen is hosting the 2014 Worlds next August while the Thomas and Uber Cups will take place in New Delhi, India.