Denmark's Mia Blichfeldt has slammed the conditions of the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium which is hosting the India Open Super 750 badminton tournament, while also terming the national capital's pollution level as "unhealthy and unacceptable."
She added that it is "not fair to anyone."
The world no. 23 had picked up a stomach infection but managed to fight through the second round before losing 21-13 16-21 8-21 to China's Wang Zhi Yi.
"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.
"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, she said.
"These conditions are too unhealthy and unacceptable. @bwf.official. I'm happy that I managed to go on court and win my first round and still play a good match in the second round, but I'm far from satisfied."
Following her loss on Thursday (January 16, 2025), Blichfeldt told the BWF media team that she had thrown up all night and was barely able to get on the court the next day for her second round match.
"Tuesday (January 14, 2025) night 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," Blichfeldt had said.
"It's not so nice for me, but I'm happy with the match I pulled yesterday and the outcome today but I wish I could have gone to court at 100%. It happened Tuesday (January 14, 2025) evening. 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."
Published - January 18, 2025 05:54 pm IST
