November 23, 2024 16:18 (IST)
Follow us:
facebook-white sharing button
twitter-white sharing button
instagram-white sharing button
youtube-white sharing button
Mahayuti routs MVA in Maharashtra, INDIA retains Jharkhand; Priyanka's triumphant poll debut | How can Mahayuti win over 200 seats? Sanjay Raut cries foul over Maharashtra mandate | 'Third World War has begun:' Ex-Ukraine military commander-in-chief Valery Zaluzhny | UK-India Free Trade Agreement negotiations to resume in early 2024 | UK can arrest Benjamin Netanyahu if he visits country based on ICC warrant
Kento Momota tests positive for COVID-19, Japanese team pull out of Thailand open
Thailand Open
Image: Wikimedia Commons

Kento Momota tests positive for COVID-19, Japanese team pull out of Thailand open

| @indiablooms | 03 Jan 2021, 09:21 pm

Tokyo/UNI: Kento Momota, the world's top-ranked men's badminton player, has tested positive for COVID-19, causing the Japanese national team to cancel its trip to play the Thailand Open.

The two-time reigning world champion, one of Japan's best gold hopefuls at this year's Olympics, returned a positive test result before flying to Bangkok at Tokyo's Narita International Airport with the Japanese team, Japan's state broadcaster NHK reported.

NHK added that the 26-year-old Momota joined his teammates at the Japanese national training center on Saturday after spending the new year's holiday at his hometown in southwest Japan's Kagawa Prefecture.

The whole Japanese national team has canceled its flight to Bangkok after Momota's positive result was confirmed, the NHK said.

The Thailand Open is due to kick off on January 12, and Momota had been drawn to face local star Khosit Phetpardab.

The tournament, running from January 12-17, is one of the three premier events to be held in three consecutive weeks in Bangkok. Momota was also expected

to play the January 19-24 Thailand Open and the BWF World Tour Finals 2020 from January 27-31.

Just a year ago, Momota, who will be playing his first Olympic Games this summer, suffered lacerations to his face, bruises to his entire body and was later

diagnosed with a broken right eye socket in a traffic accident just hours after he won the Malaysia Masters.

He played his first competitive tournament last week in winning the Japanese national championships. 
 

Support Our Journalism

We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism

IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.

Support objective journalism for a small contribution.