Tokyo: Japan’s “2021 S/J League” which started on Feb 5, 2022, was forced to cancel its remaining matches after many players of the participating teams were tested positive for COVID-19.
The “S/J League” is a badminton league in Japan where there was a total of 10 teams participated in each of the men’s and women’s team events.
Instead of competing in the upcoming 2022 Badminton Asia Team Championships that will be held in Malaysia, from February 15 to February 20, 2022, many of Japan’s top-tier players including former World No. 1 Kento Momota, World No. 5 men’s doubles player – Yuta Watanabe, World No. 7 women’s doubles player – Chiharu Shida and more have decided to represent their own badminton clubs to compete at the S/J League.
The “2021 S/J League” started its first and second rounds in two cities – the Kumamoto City and Yatsushiro City of the Kumamoto Prefecture on February 5th and February 6th.
But on February 9, a total of 6 teams, including men’s teams – NTT East (Kento Momota’s team), Kanazawa Gakuin Club, Reharukan Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.; women’s teams – NTT East, ACT SAIKYO, and San-in Godo Bank have decided to pull out due to several players and staff of the participating teams were confirmed COVID-19 positive.
The tournament which has scheduled its semi-finals and finals to be held in Shibuya-ku, Tokyo on February 11th and February 12th, can no longer proceed after the withdrawal of these teams, therefore, the organizer has announced the cancellation of the rest of the matches.
In the second round of the tournament that was held on February 6th, Kento Momota spearheaded his team, NTT East to beat the Kanazawa Gakuin Club 3-0. Momota defeated Kazumasa Sakai 21-16, 21-9 in the first men’s singles match.
His team – NTT East was supposed to face Nihon Unisys (Yuta Watanabe’s team) in the semi-finals, but it would not happen due to the cancellation.
As of February 8th, a total of 21 players and staff competing at the league have been tested COVID-19 positive.
