Tripartite trios for Rio

After news surfaced earlier in the week that Niluka Karunaratne of Sri Lanka had been awarded a spot in the Rio Olympic badminton competition through the Tripartite Commission, through unofficial channels it was learned that Soren Opti of Suriname and Jaspar Yu of Brunei Darussalam had received the other two such spots in men’s singles.  The Badminton World Federation (BWF) has yet to make the Tripartite allocations public but several sources indicate that the news has been communicated to the BWF’s member associations.

While men’s singles will have the maximum of three shuttlers qualify via the Tripartite Commission, the same sources indicate that none of the three Commission spots will be used in women’s singles.  That means that invitations will almost certainly go out to Kati Tolmoff of Estonia, Laura Sarosi (pictured) of Hungary, and to Lithuania’s Akvile Stapusaityte.  The invitation of Sarosi, in particular, will no doubt please many who lauded her actions in the recent European Championships, where she lent her opponent a shoe to keep a match going that she would ultimately lose, at the expense of the points that could have qualified her for Rio (see more here).

Photo: Badmintonphoto