Malaysia get host Thomas, Uber Cup qualifiers StarOnline BY RAJES PAUL KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will host the Thomas and Uber Cup Asian Zone qualifying tournaments at the Kuala Lumpur Badminton Stadium in Cheras here from Feb 17-24. The BAM announced yesterday that they agreed to host the qualifier tournaments for the world men's and women's team championships after Vietnam turned down the offer. The last time Malaysia organised the qualifying tournament was in 1990. The 2004 Finals will be played in Jakarta from May 7-16. The BAM secretary, P. Ganga Rao, said: “The IBF asked us last week whether we wanted to host the tournaments. They told us that Vietnam did not want to host them. We have agreed to stage them at the KLBA Stadium.” Interestingly, Malaysia will be the first to organise the qualifiers on a new format. The International Badminton Federation (IBF) have decided to increase the number of teams for both Finals from eight to 12 teams and Asia will have more qualifiers for the Thomas Cup. The 12-team Finals will include the defending champions, hosts, one representatives from each of the continents (Asia, Oceania, Europe, Pan America and Africa), three members of the Asian Badminton Confederation (ABC) and two representatives from the European Badminton Union (EBU). Indonesia are the Thomas Cup defending champions and hosts. Therefore Asia will get five berths instead of four in the qualifiers in Kuala Lumpur. The IBF media officer, Lindsey Bell, said: “We (the IBF) have decided to give another place to Asia because Indonesia are the title holders and the hosts. “Initially, we allocated three for ABC and two for EBU because they represent the strongest badminton nations in the world.” The qualifying rounds in all five continents will also take place in February. The BAM now have less than five months to put together a strong Thomas Cup team to contend with China, South Korea, Thailand, India, Hong Kong and Singapore for places in the Finals. In the qualifiers for last year's Finals in Melbourne, Malaysia emerged as the Asian Zone winners. They defeated South Korea 3-0. They finished as the runners-up to Indonesia in the Finals in Guangzhou, losing 2-3 in the final. Malaysia have won the Thomas Cup five times – in the inaugural tournament in 1949 and then in 1952, 1955, 1967 and 1992.
ABC selected 5th february as seeding date, and draw supposed to be on 7th February: http://www.worldbadminton.net/Portal/desktopdefault.aspx?tabid=20&ItemID=4349 As usual JVC site doesn't have anything upto date, last news was - Silvi keeps women's title hopes alive at JVC tourney October 19, 2003 - 0:00 AM. http://www.jvc-badminton.com/ But there is relief in site: Asian Badminton confederation site As article confirms with : 1. Fourteen nations have confirmed participation in the Asian Zone Thomas Cup qualifying round while nine have sent in their entries for the Uber Cup to be held concurrently in Kuala Lumpur in February this year 2. Singapore’s: Mohan Dharan has been named the Chief Referee for the tournaments while Ajit Wijesekera of Sri Lanka and Cho Won Kyu of Korea will be the Assistant Referees. The official shuttlecock will be Yonex. 3. All matches will be played at the Kuala Lumpur Badminton Stadium while the Federal Hotel in the city will be the official hotel. 4. For information about the tournament, contact Ganga Rao, General Secretary of the Badminton Association of Malaysia at tel: 6-03-2093 9220; fax: 6-03-2094 5855. BAM’s e-mail address is: bad_msia@streamyx.com
