Hours before the draws were supposed to take place for Paris 2024, BWF issued a press release saying that men’s doubles process will be postponed.
It was necessitated because the French men’s doubles pair Lucas Corvée and Ronan Labar had to be included in a revised 17-pair men’s doubles draw, instead of the 16 pairs that originally qualified.
📢 Official Update French men's doubles pair Lucas Corvée and Ronan Labar have been included in a revised 17-pair men’s doubles draw for the #Paris2024 #Olympics which will be held Monday 15 July 2024 at 4pm Malaysia time (+8 hours GMT).
So instead of four groups of four pairs, men’s doubles will have three groups of four pairs and one group with five pairs.
The lower ranked French pair (Corvée/Labar) will then be drawn randomly into one of the three remaining groups.
India’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will finally be able to find out what their group will look like at the Paris Olympics as Badminton World Federation confirmed on Sunday men’s doubles group stage draw, which was postponed from Friday, will now take place on Monday 15 July 2024 at 1.30 pm IST.
Hours before the draws were supposed to take place for Paris 2024, BWF issued a press release saying that men’s doubles process will be postponed. It was necessitated because the French men’s doubles pair Lucas Corvée and Ronan Labar had to be included in a revised 17-pair men’s doubles draw, instead of the 16 pairs that originally qualified. It was the result of an award by the Court of Arbitration for Sport ordering BWF to recommend to the International Olympic Committee that Corvée/Labar be included in the Olympic Games.
The confusion was a result of a rankings calculation error by BWF that they acknowledged in April this year, virtually at the end of the Race to Paris qualification window. Due to a miscalculation that wasn’t caught as far back at May 2023 (when the qualification window started), Corvee and Labar slid down below Toma Junior Popov and Christo Popov, resulting in the latter pair qualifying for Paris at the last minute.
📢 Official Update French men's doubles pair Lucas Corvée and Ronan Labar have been included in a revised 17-pair men’s doubles draw for the #Paris2024 #Olympics which will be held Monday 15 July 2024 at 4pm Malaysia time (+8 hours GMT). This is a result of an award by the… — BWF (@bwfmedia) July 14, 2024
“The processing error is linked to the implementation of a new rule effective 2023 regarding points calculations at team tournaments based on players’ average points and bonus points for winning matches. It has, therefore, been necessary this week to make point modifications related to some team tournament points,” the BWF had said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the consequences of the point modifications meant a few changes to Olympic qualifying positions, most notably in relation to two French men’s doubles pairs, where the point modifications were enough to switch the ranking positions between Lucas Corvee/Ronan Labar and Christo Popov/Toma Jnr Popov, with the latter now ahead.”
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Since the development happened after pretty much all qualification events were done, there was outrage against the BWF’s botch-up in the process which left Labar and Corvee with no chance to overturn the deficit. So they contested the case at CAS who ruled that 17 pairs must now be part of Paris 2024, instead of 16 across the doubles categories.
What happens now?
On Sunday, the governing body said, “the IOC responded positively on the BWF recommendation resulting from the CAS order and proceeded to confirm the participation of Corvée/Labar as a second French men’s doubles pair. In view of the limited time, and the ensuing technical considerations regarding the impact this decision had on the regulations and men’s doubles draw principles, BWF decided not to conduct the men’s doubles draw alongside the four other events on the day of the official draw ceremony last Friday 12 July 2024.”
The BWF has now published an updated regulation for men’s doubles explaining the new draw principles and to make an exception for a 17-pair draw. The updated regulations have been approved by BWF Council and accepted by the IOC.
What are the key points of the changed regulations?
So instead of four groups of four pairs, men’s doubles will have three groups of four pairs and one group with five pairs. The number of seeds remain unchanged, with the top four seeds each taking up the top spot in each of the groups. The seeds are as follows:
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1 Liang Wei Keng/Wang Chang (CHN)
2 Kim Astrup/Anders Skaarup Rasmussen (DEN)
3 Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty (IND)
4 Kang Min Hyuk/Seo Seung Jae (KOR)
Liang / Wang as the top seeds will be top of group A while the Danes will be top of group D. Satwik-Chirag will be drawn into either Group B or C. Corvée/Labar will take their place in the men’s doubles draw as a fully qualified pair like all other pairs.
One of the four groups will now have five pairs drawn. The group with five pairs will be drawn randomly between Groups A, B, C, and D, so any of the four groups could be the one with five pairs. As both French men’s doubles pairs are unseeded and cannot be in the same group, the highest ranked pair among them (Popov/Popov) will be drawn first and can go into any group. The lower ranked French pair (Corvée/Labar) will then be drawn randomly into one of the three remaining groups.
But there is no change in the fact that top two teams from each group will proceed to the knockouts.
