BWF World Championships 2022: All you need to know- Dates, Venues, and Format Explainer

The elite Badminton action now arrives in the land of Japan as the BWF (Badminton World Federation) is ready to host their prestigious world championship event.  Baddies from all around the world will be touring the land of the rising sun to contest for the biggest BWF rating points set. 

After witnessing enthralling action in the 2022 Commonwealth Games, the Badminton universe is gearing up for yet another elite event in the same month.  It will kick-start the throbbing Badminton fest in Japan as this tournament will be followed by BWF World Tour Super 750 event, Japan Open. The fans are hyped up and hoping to see their favourite shuttlers getting crowned and earning the prestigious title of World Champions.

It was started back in 1977 by the defunct International Badminton Federation (IBF) and this will be marked as its 27th edition. As per the restructured BWF calendar, the World Championship event holds the highest weightage of rating points among all events organised by the international governing body. The number of points awarded to the medalists of this event is equivalent to Olympics Games medalists while there are also cash prizes just like the latter one.  

Dates

The mega event will be kick-starting on the 21st of August 2022 and will be consummated on the 28th of the same month. It will be a week-long tournament that will take place from the third Sunday to the fourth and last Sunday of August. 

August is the usual window for the World Championship as all editions since 2007 have been organised in this month. Except for the previous edition which was held in December 2021 owing to the rescheduled consequences due to the pandemic of Covid-19. 

Venues

Will the Indian contingent be able to sustain their triumphant run further?

The official announcement of the City of Tokyo hosting this mega event came in 2018 when BWF issued a host list for the 2019 to 2025 editions. This will be the first-ever BWF World Championships event taking place in Japan as the Land of Rising Sun has never hosted it before. 

The Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium complex which is situated in the Sendagaya ward of Japan’s capital city will be the solitary venue for the entire competition. The arena has been operating since the year 1954 and has hosted many historic events down the line. After the latest renovation in 1990, the authorities have claimed that it has a seating capacity of 10,000 of which 6,000 are fixed and the rest of them are temporary ones. 

Tokyo Metropolitan indoor arena is worldwide known for hosting major Table Tennis, Gymnastics, Skating, Volleyball and Basketball events for years. It was also chosen as the solitary venue for the whole Table Tennis event of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. 

Format Explainer

BWF World Championships does not offer any cash prizes to the winners but the rating points awarded here are the highest and worth for a legendary fight. There will be five traditional categories Men’s Singles, Women’s Singles, Men’s Doubles, Women’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles in which 256 individuals or double pairs will be participating. A total number of 364 shuttlers from 46 nations will be taking the badminton battlefield from the 21st of August onwards. 

Points Distribution Tally:

There will be six knockout rounds in each category while the participation number may differ according to the event. The men’s Singles category has the highest number of participants and all of them will be battling out in the first round itself. On the other hand, the rest of the events have placed the Top 16 seeds directly in the second round.  

India has the joint second-most participants (17) across five categories along with Malaysia after the host Japan (27). The total number of Indian shuttlers taking part in this edition (27) is higher than the previous edition (23) which was held at Huelva, Spain. Two Indian representatives, PV Sindhu in Women’s Singles and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy & Chirag Shetty in Men’s Doubles are among the Top 16 seeds and will be kick-starting their campaign from the second round. 

Star Attraction 

Saina returns after a minor break!

The Men’s Singles event will be commencing when the Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Viktor Axelsen will be up against the 2014 Commonwealth Games gold medalist Liew D of Malaysia. The Danish current World No. 1 most recently participated in the Indonesia Open and returned home with first prize. 

The Japanese Women’s Doubles pairs of Yuki Fukushima & Sayaka Hiroka and Nami Matsuyama & Chiharu Shida who contested in the finals of the Indonesia Open are charged to hold the honor in their home. 

The legendary Saina Nehwal is making her return to the Badminton battlefield after failing to qualify for the recently concluded Birmingham Commonwealth Games. Meanwhile, PV Sindhu is the only Women’s Singles Indian representative to receive a bye in the first round and may face the higher-ranked An Se-young in the third round. The Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist will be the main attraction in the competition especially after clinching goldware in the CWG 2022. 

Lakshya Sen, Kidambi Srikanth, and HS Prannoy have been drafted in the same section and find themselves against each other before medal contention. The 21-year-old Lakshya is India’s biggest hope in the Men’s Singles category considering his recent purple patch. The Birmingham CWG double medalist had to satisfy with bronze in the previous World Championship and must be aiming to turn it into gold this time.