English pullout unfortunate, no threat to World C'ship: BWF

Amit Kumar Das

Hyderabad, Aug 9 Describing England's last-minute pullout from the World Badminton Championship as unfortunate, Badminton World Federation today insisted that there is no specific threat to the mega-event starting here tomorrow.

BWF Chief Operating Officer (COO) Thomas Lund said he tried convincing the English team about the security situation but it had already decided to pull out by then.

"There is no specific threat to championship from anywhere. But of course the English team felt otherwise. It is unfortunate but we should respect their decision," Lund told reporters here.

"We had a discussion about the news but we didn't get the chance to discuss and convince them about the development because by the time we reached them, they had already decided to withdraw," he revealed.

England today pulled out of the event, citing specific security threats from terror group Lashkar-e-Toiba.