Thursday, November 18, 2010

Taiwanese Athlete Disqualified At Taekwondo ( Taiwanese Competitor Disqualified At Taekwondo )

GUANGZHOU, China – In the first major judging controversy of the Asian Games, Yang Shu-chun of Taiwan was disqualified from the taekwondo competition Wednesday for using an illegal sensor on the heel of her shoes.
Yang Jin-suk, secretary general of the World Taekwondo Federation, told a media conference that officials noticed in a pre-match inspection that the 2008 Beijing Olympic competitor appeared to have one extra sensor on the heel of each shoe.
The judges told her not to use them in the under-49 kilogram division match, then disqualified her with 12 seconds left in the first round because they noticed she still had them on her shoes. Philippine referee Stephen Fernandez then stopped the fight.
The 25-year-old Taiwanese competitor was leading Thi Hau Vu of Vietnam 9-0, but Vu advanced to the quarterfinals.
The decision, which the secretary-general said was confirmed by a five-member games technical committee, left Yang Shu-chun and her coach in tears, and unwilling to leave the competition area.
"She was very well-known in the circuit. Why even bother to do anything like that?" the WTF secretary-general told The Associated Press.
"The fact of the matter is while she was out there competing, the sensors were discovered. That relates to the question of did she get that many points because of the sensors?"
Tai Hsia-ling, the minister of Taiwan's Cabinet-level Sports Affairs Council who was in Guangzhou, disagreed with the situation.
"This is a very, very unfair statement," Tai said. "We will protest strongly again. We are very upset that he (the WTF) made a statement like that before the results of the investigation are out. It is very unfair to our athletes."
Taiwanese taekwondo competitor Huang Hsien-yung later went on to win gold in the under-46 class, and said she used her teammate's disqualification to motivate her.
"When I first found out, I thought 'how could that be?'" Huang said. "But I turned my grief into motivation."
Yang Jin-suk's announcement at Guangdong Stadium, venue of the taekwondo competition, was met with boos and chants from some of the Taiwanese media attending the event.
Yang Shu-chun, who was not immediately for comment, also competed at the 2006 Doha Asian Games. Read more at http://sg.news.yahoo.com/ap/20101117/tsp-tae-asian-games-taekwondo-dq-4th-ld-6e81073.html
 

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