Melbourne Skateboarding Event Canceled -- Federations Focus

(ATR) World Skate and Street League Skateboarding (SLS) decide the threat of poor air quality caused by the Australian bushfires is enough to cancel next month’s Pro Tour event in Melbourne.

An attempt was made to postpone the event, scheduled for February 4-9, by a month but there were too many conflicts among stakeholders. In the end, organizers determined it was "in the best interest for the athletes and NGBs to remove it from the calendar entirely".

The conservative approach is in contrast to the Australian Open tennis tournament, which began this week as scheduled despite some issues with the smoke from the bushfires affecting players last week during qualifying rounds.

The Melbourne Pro Tour stop was part of the qualification system for Tokyo 2020, where skateboarding will make its Olympic debut.

But the federation and the SLS said in a statement "With a full season of events around the corner, we feel that the best choice for all the stakeholders involved… is to proceed with a confirmed SLS Tour."

SLS, as the event organizer, says it will help athletes requiring documentation for flight changes and travel insurance claims.

Tokyo 2020 Table Tennis Qualification

Nine of the 16 qualification places for each of the men's and women's table tennis team events at Tokyo 2020 will be determined this week in Gondomar, Portugal.

The 2020 ITTF World Team Qualification Tournament began Wednesday and runs through Sunday.

The tournament is a straight knockout from the start. The eight quarterfinalists from the first stage automatically qualify for Tokyo. The final spot will be awarded to the team that wins the second stage, contested by the eight teams to lose at the round of 16 in the first stage.

Each qualifying team will be entitled to nominate two members to compete in the singles competitions in Tokyo.

The other seven qualified teams include the six continental champions and the host country Japan.

Big Change for Badminton in 2021

Badminton will be transitioning from natural feather shuttlecocks to synthetic ones.

Badminton World Federation (BWF) announced on Monday it has approved the use of synthetic shuttles at BWF International sanctioned tournaments of all levels from 2021.

In an effort to increase sustainability within the sport, the BWF worked with Yonex to develop the new synthetic shuttles. The final phase of the project involved testing them at three BWF sanctioned international tournaments last year.

Feedback indicated that the Yonex synthetic feather shuttle was more durable and economical compared to a traditional natural feathered shuttle, while at the same time providing a very similar flight and performance.

According to the BWF, various testing has shown that the synthetic feather shuttle could reduce shuttlecock usage up to 25 percent, providing a significant environmental and economic edge for badminton going forward.

Yonex is expected to have competition in the synthetic shuttle market.BWF has introduced guidelines for shuttlecock manufacturers to seek approval for versions of their synthetic feather shuttlecocks to be used in international competitions.

The traditional natural feather shuttlecocks will still be in play for a busy 2020, including at the Thomas and Uber Cup in Aarhus, Denmark in May. The biennial world team championships are being held outside Asia for the first time since 1982.

After that, all eyes will be on the Olympics in Tokyo. As you might expect, BWF secretary general Thomas Lund had plenty to say about Tokyo 2020 in a wide-ranging interview with Around the Rings.

World Snow Day 2020

The ninth edition of World Snow Day on January 19 featured 359 events in 45 countries.

Among the events held around the globe were an open day in Norway with €5 ($5.54) lift passes for all children and adults, free ski lessons for children in Lake Louise, Canada, and the first World Snow Day in Qatar.

China, the host of the next Winter Olympics in 2022, held 72 events with discounted ski lessons, equipment rental and lift passes.

"It is humbling to see so many stakeholders come together to bring the next generation to snow sports. My congratulations to all those who participated, this was a very good edition of the event," International Ski Federation (FIS) President Gian Franco Kasper said.

Only four events out of 363 had to be cancelled due to poor weather conditions.

Written by Gerard Farek

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