With Tokyo 2020 coming closer, the official qualification period starts tomorrow. This means that the first tournaments counting for this official rank are starting this week. The first HSBC BWF World Tour tournament for Olympic qualification has started all the way down under in New Zealand.
Also Marvin Seiden (Germany) is aiming for a spot in Tokyo. Or maybe even two spots as he is competing in both men’s and mixed doubles.
The mixed doubles however did not start out as well as he hoped. He and Linda Efler lost to Tak Ching Chang and Wing Yung Ng (Hong Kong) in three games.
- We wanted to get at least to the quarterfinals in Mixed doubles but unfortunately, we didn’t play our best today, Seidel commented after his match to Badminton Europe.
Read: Only 19 days to go
Big challenge
Later on this day, Seidel has a chance to redeem himself in the men’s doubles event with Mark Lamsfuss. They definitely do not have the easiest draw, but Seidel stays positive
- We are confident that we can beat Goh/Tan (Malaysia) and if we play well, we can get quite far in the tournament.
As for the Olympic qualification period, Seidel has to say:
- Tokyo is definitely the big goal and I’m looking forward to the year and all the challenges we will face!
Find all the matches and results of the BARFOOT & THOMPSON New Zealand Open 2019 here
Can’t sleep? Find the live stream of the matches of the BARFOOT & THOMPSON New Zealand Open 2019 at the Badmintonworld tv channel.