BWF World C'ships: Transport issues affect practice sessions, players complain

With just a few hours to go for the first game of the BWF World Championships 2023 in Copenhagen, poor transport arrangements left the players dazed on Sunday. Multiple players expressed their disappointments and criticised the tournament organiser - Badminton Denmark, the governing body of badminton in Denmark, for the complication.

Many players, including the likes of Wang Tzu Wei, Yeo Jiamin, Shevon Lai, and Indian shuttler HS Prannoy, vented out their angers on social media.

Indian shuttler Prannoy took a dig at the transport issue in an Instagram story where one of the Indian support staff, Kiran C, was seen pushing a puck on a table shuffleboard game and wrote, "When there is no transport available for practice sessions we are busy sharpening our skills in this game".

While Prannoy laughed off the issue, Malaysian mixed doubles shuttler Shevon Lai Jemie expressed her frustration at the press conference.

"While it is disappointing, Soon Huat and I will not allow it to affect our game here. It’s just not us but a few countries faced the same issues. Although I was quite upset with it, I will just have to accept it as some normal daily issue. The focus is still on giving our best on the court," Shevon told The Star, a Malaysian newspaper.

Shevon also highlighted other issues such as the late hotel check-in.

"Seriously and honestly, this is a terrible arrangement from the organizer for such a major event. We had to wait for almost an hour yesterday (on Thursday) for our hotel check-in because we did not have the hotel booking from the organizer," Shevon said.

Wang Tzu Wei, too, took to social media to write, "Everyone waited for the shuttle here for 55 minutes which disappeared,". The practice courts are one hour far from the hotel of players.