Badminton World Championships 2022: when is BWF event, where is it, which players are competing, how to watch

Formerly known as the IBF World Championships, the Badminton World Federation tournament is one of the most prestigious in badminton, offering the most ranking points along with the Summer Olympics badminton tournaments.

The winners of the tournament are also crowned “world champions” of the sport and are awarded gold medals.

The tournament was first instigated in 1977 and held once every three years until 1983. From 1985 the tournament became biennial until 2005.

Since 2006, the tournament became an annual event on the BWF calendar, although is not held the same year as Summer Olympic years to avoid scheduling conflicts.

The 2022 BWF championships are currently taking place in Tokyo, Japan with both the world number one and two, Viktor Axelsen and Momota Kento, safely through to the second round.

Here is all you need to know as the BWF Championships continue in Tokyo...

When are the BWF World Championships?

The tournament began on Monday 22 August 2022 and will conclude with the finals on Sunday 28 August 2022.

Schedule:

• Monday 22 August 2022: Round of 64
• Tuesday 23 August 2022: Round of 32
• Wednesday 24 August 2022: Round of 32
• Thursday 25 August 2022: Round of 16
• Friday 26 August 2022: Quarter finals
• Saturday 27 August 2022: Semi finals
• Sunday 28 August 2022: Finals

Who is in the BWF tournament?

The top ranked players currently competing in the tournament are:

1. Viktor Axelsen
2. HS Prannoy
3. Anthony Sinisuka Ginting
4. Jonatan Crhistie
5. Chou Tien Chen
6. Lee Zii Jia
7. Lu Guang Zu
8. Zhao Jun Peng
9. Lkshya Sen
10. Nhat Nguyen

The top ranked players in the women’s tournament are:

1. Yamaguchi Akane
2. Tai Txu Ying
3. An Se Young
4. Chen Yu Fei
5. Marin Carolinea
6. Okuhara Nozomi
7. Sindhu Pusarla Venkata
8. Intanon Ratchanok
9. He Bing Jiao
10. Chochuwong Pornpawee

Where is the tournament taking place?

This year the tournament is taking place at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium in Japan.

In previous years, the tournament has been hosted by Heulva, Spain in 2021; Basel, Switzerland in 2019; Nanjing, China in 2019 and Glasgow, Scotland in 2017.

The next tournament will be held in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2023 before Paris hosts the 2025 tournament.

What happened in the first round?

Yesterday’s biggest upset went to Japan’s Nishimoto Kenta who stunned the world number three, Denmark’s Anders Antonsen.

Other big names, such as Lee Zii Jia, Chou Tien-chen, Jonatan Christie, Anthony Ginting and Loh Kean Yew are all through to the second round.

Loh Kean Yew is the current reigning champion and, despite a disappointing Commonwealth Games, the Singaporean will hope to retain his 2021 title.

How to watch the BWF World Championships?

The badminton championships will be available to watch on the BWF Youtube channel. Streaming of the event is also possible to watch through the Olympics website streaming service.

Who is playing today?

In the men’s single TW Wang, S Thammasin, CY Lee and TC Chou have all made it through to the next round of the championships while Vincent WK Wong and Angus Ng will find out their fate later on this evening.

In the women’s singles, all the matches have concluded with Z Wang, B Zhang, C Marin, S Takahashi and S An making it through to the round of 16 which will take place in the net few days.