A Prince Rupert born and raised badminton athlete, who was a favourite to medal in his home country at the Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games has been disqualified following an administrative error by Badminton Canada.
Adrian Liu, Canada’s elite men’s doubles player and badminton partner Derrick Ng were disqualified through violating a Badminton World Federation (BWF) ruling that states no player or pair will enter two federation-sanctioned competitions in the same week.
Badminton Canada allegedly appealed the decision but to no avail.
In a message to CBC, Ng stated that Badminton Canada had registered Liu and Ng to play in the Taipei Open, which falls on July 14 – 19 as opposed to the Taipei Grand Prix, which is held Oct. 13 – 18.
The former tournament conflicts with the Pan Am Games by BWF rules.
The duo, based out of Richmond, B.C. had won bronze in the 2011 Pan Am Games and were medal hopefuls for Canada in the Toronto tournament.
The disqualification also hurts the duo’s chances of entering the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics as the points earned at the Pan Am Games are very crucial to the qualification for the Olympics stages.
No replacement men’s doubles team has been assigned by Canada and the badminton portion of the Pan Am Games start Saturday.
