India's Nitesh Kumar, Viktor Axelsen, and An Se Young Lead BWF Annual Awards Nominations

Kuala Lumpur, Dec 2 (NationPress) India's Paralympic champion Nitesh Kumar has been nominated for the Men’s Para-Badminton Player of the Year accolade, alongside Olympic champions from Denmark, Viktor Axelsen, and South Korea's An Se Young, who are leading the nominations for the BWF Annual Awards.

In addition, Axelsen and Se Young, along with the pairs Chen Qing Chen/Jia Yi Fan and Zheng Si Wei/Huang Ya Qiong, are in contention for the BWF Player of the Year awards for 2024.

Five prestigious awards acknowledge the top player or pair in men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, and mixed doubles. These awards celebrate outstanding badminton talent, consistent performance throughout the season, fair play, personality, and a notable profile over a 12-month eligibility period from 1 December 2023 to 30 November 2024, as stated by the Badminton World Federation (BWF).

In the men’s singles category, Axelsen is up against fellow nominees Shi Yu Qi (China), Chou Tien Chen (Taipei), and Anders Antonsen (Denmark) for the Male Player of the Year, while Se Young competes with Wang Zhi Yi (China), Gregoria Mariska Tunjung (Indonesia), and Han Yue (China) for the Female Player of the Year.

China's Liang Wei Keng/Wang Chang, who are silver medallists at Paris 2024, are nominated for the Men’s Doubles Player of the Year and face competition from All England champions Fajar Alfian/Muhammad Rian Ardianto (Indonesia), Kim Astrup/Anders Skaarup Rasmussen (Denmark), and Kang Min Hyuk/Seo Seung Jae (South Korea).

The Women’s Doubles Player of the Year category includes both Olympic finalists, Chen Qing Chen/Jia Yi Fan (China) and their compatriots Liu Sheng Shu/Tan Ning (China), who have claimed six titles this year, as well as Baek Ha Na/Lee So Hee (Korea) and Nami Matsuyama/Chiharu Shida (Japan).

China also has a strong representation in the mixed doubles nominations, with Zheng/Huang, Asian champions Feng Yan Zhe/Huang Dong Ping, and Indonesia Open champions Jiang Zhen Bang/Wei Ya Xin competing alongside Dejan Ferdinansyah/Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja.

The BWF announced that, in addition to the five category awards, there are two extra player-voted awards: the Players’ Player of the Year (Men) and Players’ Player of the Year (Women), replacing the previous Most Improved award.

The top 32 ranked men’s and women’s singles players, as well as the top 16 ranked pairs in men’s, women’s, and mixed doubles as of October 8, 2024, are eligible to receive and cast votes for their peers.

The Eddy Choong Most Promising Player Award has been rebranded as the Eddy Choong Rising Star Award (for those aged 21 or below) to recognize the best emerging young talent exclusively, as determined by the BWF Awards Commission.

In the Para badminton category, Nitesh is nominated alongside Paralympic champions Cheah Liek Hou, Daiki Kajiwara, and Qu Zimo for the Men’s Para-Badminton Player of the Year, while Li Feng Mei, Sarina Satomi, Liu Yu Tong, and Leani Ratri Oktila are in the running for the women’s category.

Qu, Liu, Oktila, and Li are also nominated for the Para-Badminton Pair of the Year alongside their respective partners Mai Jian Peng, Yin Meng Lu, Hikmat Ramdani, and Lin Naili.

The winners will be determined based on a combined score from total world ranking points accumulated during the 52-week eligibility period, along with votes collected from a five-member expert panel after each HSBC BWF World Tour Super 750 and Super 1000 tournament, as well as the HSBC BWF World Tour Finals and the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, both of which offer double points.

A weighting system will be implemented to ensure that the total 52-week world ranking points carry a greater significance in the overall awards points tally.