Scotland is to host world badminton's most prestigious tournament in 2017 after an extraordinary turn of events at a meeting of the sport's global governing body in Peru.
Less than 24 hours after the disappointment of discovering that their bid to bring the Sudirman Cup, the world mixed team championships, to Glasgow's Emirates Arena in 2017 had failed, BadmintonScotland representatives were asked if they would be prepared to stage that year's World Championships instead.
"It is quite a consolation prize," said a thrilled Anne Smillie, chief executive of BadmintonScotland, told Herald Sport from Lima, where the year-end meeting of the Badminton World Federation is taking place.
"Naturally we were disappointed at missing out on the Sudirman Cup but we were then told by the BWF that they had been hugely impressed with the quality of both bids and the key for them is that they can have confidence that their biggest events will be staged in a fitting manner so they wanted us to hold the individual World Championships."
To place that in context, while England chose not even to contest last year's Sudirman Cup, the calibre of the field at the individual World Championships is such that, at this year's event, Kirsty Gilmour's world ranking of 17 was not enough to get her a place among the 16 seeds because every one of the players ranked above her turned up in Copenhagen.
Since Scotland has nothing like the commercial clout of many of the Asian nations in which the sport has a much higher profile, the invitation is recognition of the esteem in which BadmintonScotland is held because of the way it has presented and run major competitions in the past.
In that regard, the timing of the decision is even better for the governing body, coming as it does just days ahead of this year's Scottish Open Grand Prix which starts at the Emirates Arena on Wednesday.
"Receiving this invitation is a huge tribute to all of our partners who help us to put on the calibre events that we now have a reputation for being able to put on," said Smillie. "This will be a huge boost for the volunteers in particular, while it will also provide great incentive for our leading players who did so well in front of a home crowd at the same venue at this year's Commonwealth Games."
The World Championships, which will attract supreme athletes from all over the world, will also have the potential to help raise the profile of the sport in Scotland where it still has a slightly twee image, in stark contrast to Asia in particular where it is among the most popular sports.
They have previously been staged in the UK only twice: in London three years ago and in Glasgow in 1997.
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