Thirty-two teams are bound for the Gold Coast, with entries for this year’s TOTAL BWF Sudirman Cup having closed on Tuesday.

The 21 to 28 May event in Australia will culminate in the presentation of the Sudirman Cup to the winners of the World Mixed Team Championships; a battle royal which tests the all-round strength of teams each consisting of a maximum of 20 players.

Defending champions China (featured image), previous runners-up Japan, and past winners Indonesia and Korea are among the prominent teams in the tournament. Participating teams will be seeded based on the world ranking of their players on Thursday 2 March and divided into four groups. Group 1 will have the top 12 teams contesting for the title; Groups 2 and 3 will have eight teams each. The remaining four teams will be in Group 4. Teams in Groups 2, 3 and 4 will compete only for overall placings and not for the title.

The competition format consists of group play followed by a knockout phase. Group ties will feature all five matches (Men’s Singles, Women’s Singles, Men’s Doubles, Women’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles), but the knockout ties will be completed when a team wins three matches.

There are 13 teams from Asia, ten from Europe, six from Oceania and three from Pan Am.

China have won the Sudirman Cup a record ten times – including the last six editions from 2005. Korea (three titles) and Indonesia (one title) are the only other teams to have triumphed.

The 32 teams are:

Asia: China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, Chinese Taipei, Macau

Europe: Austria, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, England, Spain, Sweden, Scotland, Slovakia, Russia

Oceania: Australia, Tahiti, New Zealand, Guam, Fiji, New Caledonia

Pan Am: Canada, Mexico, USA