Badminton World Federation (BWF) has given the green signal for the use of synthetic feather shuttlecocks starting from 2021.
The revolutionary synthetic shuttlecock which was developed by Yonex is approved for use in all levels of BWF sanctioned tournaments from next year.
This landmark move is aimed to increase sustainability within the sport through economic and environmental advantage over the traditional, natural feather shuttlecocks.
The approved synthetic shuttlecock claims to have similar flight and performance when compared to natural feather shuttlecocks. It also has the capacity to reduce shuttlecock usage by as much as 25 percent.
However, BWF also stated that it will take a number of years before synthetic shuttlecocks will be more widely used. It will be up to the tournaments organisers to decide if the new synthetic shuttlecocks will be used or not in a particular tournament.
The particular shuttlecock, according to BWF, was used in three international tournaments last year.
BWF Secretary General Thomas Lund expressed his optimism in an official press release.
“We heard from some of the elite players involved in the testing of the Yonex synthetic feather shuttlecock that they were able to adjust to the slight variances between the synthetic feather version and the traditional natural feather shuttlecock quite quickly, so that is great news for the performance of the shuttle.”
BWF will now update the technical approval criteria for shuttlecocks within the Equipment Approval Scheme.