Thursday, November 18, 2010

Anger simmers over Taiwanese disqualification in Asian Games

Taipei, Nov. 18 (CNA) Taiwanese sports fans and lawmakers were still furious Thursday about the disputed disqualification of a Taiwanese taekwondo athlete in the Asian Games in Guangzhou, China, while the facts about the controversial decision remained unclear.

One of Taiwan's gold medal hopefuls at the 2010 Asian Games, Yang Shu-chun was disqualified during a Tuesday bout in the women's 49 kilogram division when the chief referee ruled that she had extra sensors in her footwear that increased her chances of winning.

The disqualification immediately sparked outrage in Taiwan, with government officials saying they were not ruling out filing for arbitration by the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

Taiwanese sports fans vented their anger on the Internet, with several fan pages set up on the social website Facebook to support Yang receiving over 200,000 responses. Fans expressed their anger toward China and South Korea, because Zhao Lei, vice president of the Asian Taekwondo Union (ATU) , is Chinese and Yang Jin-suk, secretary-general of the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) , is from South Korea.

A large part of the criticism against Taiwanese officials was directed at Chen Hsien-tsung, deputy chairman of the Sports Affairs Council, whose "weak comment" in a press conference in Taipei Wednesday, called after the disqualification, was lambasted. Chen said that it is not the first time Taiwan has been treated unfairly in international sports, but that it probably needed to "swallow" the injustice again.

Taiwanese lawmakers also condemned the decision. Lin Yi-shih, a legislator of the ruling Kuomintang (KMT), launched a petition in the Legislative Yuan to organize a protest march for Yang.

Speaking in a television program, KMT official Su Jun-pin said the incident was "obviously unfair treatment."

Huang Hsi-lin, a city councilor candidate in the Nov. 27 municipality elections, burned a South Korean flag in front of the SAC building Thursday in protest.

The facts behind the controversial decision were still unclear. Yang Jin-suk said in a press conference that day in Guangzhou that Yang actually put extra sensors into her footwear after passing a pre-match inspection, but the ATU promised to launch an investigation to further review the incident.

In a statement posted on the ATU website, the organization said the incident was a "shocking act of deception."

While Taiwanese government officials threatened to take legal action against the decision, Chen Kuo-yi, secretary-general of the Chinese Taipei Olympic Association, told CNA by telephone that certain preconditions must be met before filing for arbitration.

Chen said from Guangzhou that information about the incident has been chaotic so far and that the Taiwanese team and the ATU have provided conflicting stories. Taiwan will not be able to file arbitration before learning all the details and facts, he said. (By Chris Wang) ENDITEM/J