Denmark’s Mia Blichfeldt has slammed as “unhealthy and unacceptable” the state of the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium, which is hosting the India Open Super 750 badminton tournament, and pollution levels in Delhi.
The world no. 23 picked up a stomach infection but fought through the second round before losing 21-13 16-21 8-21 to China’s Wang Zhi Yi.
“(I am) 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 Instagram.
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Player laments
“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.”
After her loss on Thursday, Blichfeldt told the Badminton World Federation (BWF) media team that she had thrown up all night and was barely able to get on the court the next day for a second-round match.
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Stomach upset
“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,” she said.
“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.”
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