General

This post is intended to clarify appropriate tournament entry regulations as it pertains to age criteria, and to notify all participants and stakeholders that one player has entered the U23 category for the 2019 National Championships using what Badminton Canada considers invalid age criteria.  The organization does not have the authority to deny the entry.

 

On April 15^th, 2019 it came to our attention that there were two versions of the tournament entry regulations on the Badminton Canada website, both of which included differing age criteria.

 

The current/valid regulations for the U23 category state that “the competition is open to athletes born in 1997 or later (U23)”.  We were unaware that a second version was available on the website which indicated "Players must be under the age of 23 as of December 31st of the year preceding the championships". We believe this latter version to be invalid, and it was immediately removed from the website when it was discovered on April 15^th.

 

However, one player appealed to enter the U23 National Championships using the additional window of eligibility offered by the invalid version of the age criteria.  Badminton Canada has been advised by external legal counsel that it does not have the authority to deny the appeal, and she has therefore been granted entry into the competition.

 

This is an unfortunate outcome and an unintended consequence of having an old version of the criteria on the website.  Badminton Canada has committed to conducting a thorough review of all documents posted on our site to determine if they are up to date and accurate. The intent is to have this activity complete as soon as possible and prior to the start of the 2019/2020 season.