Denmark’s Mia Blichfeldt in action. (Credit: BAI)
Mia Blichfeldt, world No 23 from Denmark, has strongly criticised the conditions in New Delhi and at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium for the India Open Super 750 badminton tournament that began earlier this week.
Blichfeldt had lost in the women’s singles second round on Thursday, and posted a critique of stadium conditions as well the pollution in the national capital, ruing that all the preparation for the tournament went to waste, because she fell ill at the tournament for the second year running.
“Finally home after a long and stressful week in India. It’s 2 years in a row now that I get sick during India Open,” Blichfeldt wrote on her Instagram page. “It’s really hard to accept that many weeks of work and preparing, gets wasted because of bad conditions. It’s not fair to anyone that we have to train and play in smog, birds shitting on the courts, and dirt everywhere. These conditions are too unhealthy and unacceptable. @bwf.official. I’m happy that I managed to go on court and win my first round and still play a good match in the second round, but I’m far from satisfied.”
At the time of writing this report on Saturday, the AQI in the area where the stadium is located was 215, and the Air Quality was described as severe. There were at least a couple of pigeons flying around inside the indoor arena during the week as well.
Blichfeldt had told the BWF media team earlier that she was laid low by a stomach infection and vomited all night on Tuesday. She played her first-round match late on Wednesday night against compatriot Julie Jakobsen and prevailed 21-9, 21-14. But on Thursday, she found the going tough against in-form Wang Zhi Yi of China. Still, the Dane managed to take a game as she lost 13-21 21-16 8-21 in a match that lasted 63 minutes
“That night (Tuesday) was terrible. The only sleep I got was in the morning because I kept throwing up all night. I’m really tired now and my body is really dead,” Blichfeldt told BWF after her round of 16 defeat.
“It’s not so nice for me, but I’m happy with the match I pulled yesterday and the outcome today but I wish I could have gone to court at 100 per cent. It happened Tuesday evening. It took a lot of mental work (to get on court). It’s really frustrating when you’ve been training to come to these tournaments and then this is one of the things that stops you from performing.”
Earlier on Thursday, the French mixed doubles pair of Thom Gicquel and Delphine Delrue had also told the media in the interview zone that the weather conditions were not great. “The playing hall is pretty nice,” Gicquel had said. “But the weather is pretty cold here in Delhi and the pollution is really high right now, so it’s not easy to play, not the best conditions to play in.”
The Indian Express has requested an official comment on this matter, and this report will be updated if and when it is received.
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