New Delhi, Sep 1 (IANS) The BWF World Championships will return to India after 17 years, with the capital city, New Delhi, chosen to host the landmark 30th edition in August 2026. The announcement was made during the closing ceremony of the 2025 Championships in Paris, where a handover took place between BWF president Khunying Patama Leeswadtrakul, Frank Laurent, president of the Federation Francaise de Badminton, and Sanjay Mishra, general secretary of the Badminton Association of India.

India’s selection reflects its transformation into one of badminton’s most consistent medal-winning nations at the BWF World Championships, with 15 podium finishes since 1983.

The country’s breakthrough came with Prakash Padukone’s bronze in Copenhagen in 1983, while in 2011 Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponappa became the first Indian doubles medallists, signalling the nation’s all-round rise. At the forefront stands PV Sindhu, one of the most successful women’s singles players in the tournament’s history, with five medals: a gold, two silvers, and two bronze.

Furthermore, India’s medal streak has continued unbroken since 2011, most recently extended by Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty’s bronze in Paris 2025, their second at the event.

Speaking on the occasion, Sanjay Mishra said, “On behalf of the Badminton Association of India, I extend my heartfelt gratitude to the BWF for entrusting us with the honour of hosting the World Championships in Delhi in August 2026. We assure that India will give nothing less than 100% to uphold and carry forward the same standards of excellence and grandeur that Paris has showcased. We look forward to welcoming the badminton family to Delhi.”

A decade after India first hosted the BWF World Championships in Hyderabad in 2009, Sindhu swept past Nozomi Okuhara in Basel in 2019 to become India’s first-ever gold medallist at the World Championships.

During that period, Saina Nehwal also contributed two medals—a silver in 2015 and a bronze in 2017, the latter marking the first time India had two women sharing the podium (with Sindhu’s silver in 2017). Their combined success has made women’s singles by far the strongest category for India on the world stage, contributing a total of seven medals to the country’s overall haul.

Indian men have also delivered in recent editions. Kidambi Srikanth (silver, 2021), B. Sai Praneeth (bronze, 2019), Lakshya Sen (bronze, 2021), and HS Prannoy (bronze, 2023) have all stood on the podium in singles, while the duo of Rankireddy and Shetty made history as the first Indians to medal in men’s doubles, with back-to-back bronzes in 2022 and 2025.

First held in 1977 in Malmö, Sweden, the BWF World Championships has since grown into badminton’s most prestigious event, rotating across Europe, Asia, and North America.

The 2026 edition in New Delhi will mark the tournament’s return to Asia after four years, reinforcing the continent’s central role in the sport’s growth. For India, hosting the Championships again highlights its standing as both a powerhouse on court and a major destination on the global badminton map.

–IANS

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