BWF have to shoulder blame for anti-climax end to the season
Top News 2:52 PM
PETALING JAYA: Two things did not change in the Super Series
Masters Finals for the 2010 season, which ended on Sunday in Taipei.
Malaysia’s Lee Chong Wei (pic) remained as the men’s singles champion. An easy win over Peter-Gade Christensen of Denmark gave Chong Wei a hat-trick of titles since the Finals were introduced for the 2008 season.
The
other unchanged part, one that needs serious review, is the lack of
excitement in the so called grand finale to the Badminton World
Federation’s (BWF) Super Series season, which had 12 Open tournaments.
But the highest level of the BWF event ended in anti-climax.
First, the timing was all wrong. It was held just before two season-opening events – the Super Series’ Malaysia Open (Jan 18-23) and the newly-introduced Premier Super Series’ South Korea Open (Jan 25-30).
On the calendar this year, though, the BWF have scheduled the Masters Finals for Dec 14-18 and hopefully, the event will not be postponed.
Another letdown was the total prize money offered for BWF’s season finale was lower than one of the legs for the Super Series.
The Masters Finals offered US$500,000 while the South Korea Open had a US$1.2mil purse. It showed the affiliates’ better ability to secure better sponsorship deals.
One also cannot help but feel the absence of the world’s most celebrated player, Lin Dan of China.
China, who snubbed the previous two editions of the Masters Finals, sent their players to Taipei this time but Lin Dan was a non-qualifier because he did not compete in many events.
The BWF have made some changes to make the 2011 season interesting, one by introducing a two-tier Super Series.
But there should be better efforts to lift the status of their Masters Finals too. It should be the most special one and not just another slot on the BWF calendar.
Malaysia’s Lee Chong Wei (pic) remained as the men’s singles champion. An easy win over Peter-Gade Christensen of Denmark gave Chong Wei a hat-trick of titles since the Finals were introduced for the 2008 season.
But the highest level of the BWF event ended in anti-climax.
First, the timing was all wrong. It was held just before two season-opening events – the Super Series’ Malaysia Open (Jan 18-23) and the newly-introduced Premier Super Series’ South Korea Open (Jan 25-30).
On the calendar this year, though, the BWF have scheduled the Masters Finals for Dec 14-18 and hopefully, the event will not be postponed.
Another letdown was the total prize money offered for BWF’s season finale was lower than one of the legs for the Super Series.
The Masters Finals offered US$500,000 while the South Korea Open had a US$1.2mil purse. It showed the affiliates’ better ability to secure better sponsorship deals.
One also cannot help but feel the absence of the world’s most celebrated player, Lin Dan of China.
China, who snubbed the previous two editions of the Masters Finals, sent their players to Taipei this time but Lin Dan was a non-qualifier because he did not compete in many events.
The BWF have made some changes to make the 2011 season interesting, one by introducing a two-tier Super Series.
But there should be better efforts to lift the status of their Masters Finals too. It should be the most special one and not just another slot on the BWF calendar.
Posted by Lucas Liau
on 2:52 PM.
Filed under
