Badminton: Danish shuttler Mia Blichfeldt criticises pollution and stadium conditions at India Open 2025 – ‘Not fair to anyone’

“Finally location aft a agelong and stressful week successful India. It’s 2 years successful a enactment present that I get sick during India Open,” Blichfeldt wrote connected her Instagram page. “It’s truly hard to judge that galore weeks of enactment and preparing, gets wasted due to the fact that of atrocious conditions. It’s not just to anyone that we person to bid and play successful smog, birds shitting connected the courts, and ungraded everywhere. These conditions are excessively unhealthy and unacceptable. @bwf.official. I’m blessed that I managed to spell connected tribunal and triumph my archetypal circular and inactive play a bully lucifer successful the 2nd round, but I’m acold from satisfied.”

At the clip of penning this study connected Saturday, the AQI successful the country wherever the stadium is located was 215, and the Air Quality was described arsenic severe. There were astatine slightest a mates of pigeons flying astir wrong the indoor arena during the week arsenic well.

Blichfeldt had told the BWF media squad earlier that she was laid debased by a tummy corruption and vomited each nighttime connected Tuesday. She played her first-round lucifer precocious connected Wednesday nighttime against compatriot Julie Jakobsen and prevailed 21-9, 21-14. But connected Thursday, she recovered the going pugnacious against in-form Wang Zhi Yi of China. Still, the Dane managed to instrumentality a crippled arsenic she mislaid 13-21 21-16 8-21 successful a lucifer that lasted 63 minutes

“That nighttime (Tuesday) was terrible. The lone slumber I got was successful the greeting due to the fact that I kept throwing up each night. I’m truly bushed present and my assemblage is truly dead,” Blichfeldt told BWF aft her circular of 16 defeat.

“It’s not truthful bully for me, but I’m blessed with the lucifer I pulled yesterday and the result contiguous but I privation I could person gone to tribunal astatine 100 per cent. It happened Tuesday evening. It took a batch of intelligence enactment (to get connected court). It’s truly frustrating erstwhile you’ve been grooming to travel to these tournaments and past this is 1 of the things that stops you from performing.”

Earlier connected Thursday, the French mixed doubles brace of Thom Gicquel and Delphine Delrue had besides told the media successful the interrogation portion that the upwind conditions were not great. “The playing hallway is beauteous nice,” Gicquel had said. “But the upwind is beauteous acold present successful Delhi and the contamination is truly precocious close now, truthful it’s not casual to play, not the champion conditions to play in.”

The Indian Express has requested an authoritative remark connected this matter, and this study volition beryllium updated if and erstwhile it is received.