HANGZHOU, China, Dec. 26, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- A news report from haiwainet.cn:

The victory of Viktor Axelsen after defeating his Chinese counterpart Shi Yuqi with the score at 2-nil drew an end to the 2023 BWF World Tour Finals in Hangzhou. The top 63 badminton players around the world gathered in Hangzhou from October 13 to 17 and their high-level competition performance ignited the vibe among audiences.

As early as May, BWF Secretary General Thomas Lund was invited to visit the Olympic Sports Center complex in Hangzhou. Thomas Lund highly praised the superb sporting infrastructure and then confirmed Hangzhou, China as the host of the flagship HSBC BWF World Tour Finals for this cycle. The Finals is the highest-level event in the tour series. Only the top eight players in each individual event's annual world rankings are eligible to participate in such competitions.

Hangzhou has laid out a blueprint for building the city of international events. The successful holding of the 19th Asian Games turned the spotlight on Hangzhou. The experience accumulated during the Games and the infrastructures with high standards provided Hangzhou with momentum to hold other international events. Early before the closing ceremony of the Asian Games, Hangzhou officially announced the signing of Memorandum of Cooperation with the World Badminton Federation, the International Canoeing Federation, and the International Hockey Federation.

The consecutive successful holdings of these events including The BWF World Tour Finals 2023-2026, 2023 FIVB Women's Club World Championship, and the Hangzhou Marathon in recent days have made Hangzhou again the limelight of the world. The sporting events will, therefore, gather momentum for the city's development in the next phase.