The seedings for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Badminton Competition have set the stage for the much-awaited Draw Ceremony next Tuesday (26 July).

The draw format consists of group play followed by knockout. There are 41 competitors in Men’s Singles and 40 in Women’s Singles. The singles competitors have to be divided into groups A to P, but groups B, O and F will not have any players. Each of the 13 seeds will be placed at the head of his/her group. Eleven groups will have three players each and two groups will have four players each (in Women’s Singles, there will be 12 groups with three players and one with four); no group should have two players of the same National Olympic Committee (NOC).

The procedure for the draw is as follows:

The top seed will be placed at the head of Group A and the second seed at the head of Group P. Seeds 3 and 4 will be drawn by lots to the top of groups E and L; seeds 5 to 8 will be drawn by lots into groups C, G, J and N. The remaining seeds will be drawn by lots into groups D, H, I, K and M.

The other players are then picked by lots in a step by step manner until all of them are placed. The two groups with seeds 2 and 3 will accommodate four players each.

Following the group stage, where each player has to play every other player in his/her group, the top finisher in the group will enter the knockout stage (round of 16). The top players from groups A, P and E will get a bye since their respective opponents – groups B, O and F – do not have any players.

In doubles, the top-seeded pair is placed at the top of Group A; second seeds at the top of Group D and seeds 3 and 4 picked by lots into B and C. The remaining 12 pairs are distributed in the four groups by lots, ensuring that no group has two pairs from the same NOC.

Once the group stage is completed, the top two-ranked pairs from each group will qualify for the knockout stage (quarter-finals). A second draw is held for this stage for the eight qualified pairs, with pairs from the same group being separated. Winners of Group A and Group D are placed at opposite ends of the quarter-finals draw, followed by winners of B and C picked by lots into the other two quarters; the draw is then completed for the remaining pairs.

The Draw Ceremony will be held from 11 am to 1 pm (Rio time) at the badminton Olympic venue, Riocentro – Pavilion 4 (Barra Zone). Fans worldwide can watch the draw live on the BWF online channel (www.BadmintonWorld.tv).