Two Korean women's badminton doubles pairs were among those tossed from the London Olympics Wednesday for trying to throw their matches to ensure a favorable draw, officials said.
The Badminton World Federation (BWF) announced its ruling after investigating four doubles teams. They were: Jung Kyung-eun and Kim Ha-na and Ha Jung-eun and Kim Min-jung from South Korea; Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang of China; and Greysia Polii and Meiliana Jauhari of Indonesia.
The BWF rejected South Korea's appeal. It also said Indonesia withdrew its appeal while China didn't contest the disqualification.
These pairs had been scheduled to play in the quarterfinals later Wednesday. After accusations of match-throwing attempts arose following the teams' play Tuesday, the BWF said it would investigate the players on charges of "not using one's best efforts to win a match" and "conducting oneself in a manner that is clearly abusive or detrimental to the sport."
On Tuesday, Jung and Kim faced Wang and Yu. They were booed off the court at Wembley Arena after appearing to serve into the net and making unforced errors. The South Koreans won the match in straight sets, and the longest rally in their first game lasted just four strokes.
They got a warning from the tournament referee, Torsten Berg. The loss dropped the top-seeded Wang and Yu into second place in Group A, and they would have avoided facing the No. 2-seeded Chinese tandem, Tian Qing and Zhao Yunlei until the final. Tian and Zhao finished in second place in Group D.
In the Olympic badminton tournament, 16 doubles teams were divided into four groups, and the top two tandems from each reached the quarters. The first-place teams from Group A and Group B are on the same side of the bracket as No. 2 duos from Group C and D. On the opposite side, first-place teams from Groups C and D have drawn No. 2 duos from Groups A and B.
Officials believe that both the Wang-Yu and Jung-Kim teams tried to avoid having Ting and Zhao on the same side of the bracket.
In the following doubles match, Ha and Kim defeated Jauhari and Polii 18-21, 21-14 and 21-12, but not before receiving a warning for deliberately losing points and getting jeered by the capacity crowd as well. These teams were accused of trying to finish second in Group C and avoid facing Wang and Yu in the quarters.
After the matches, the South Korean coaches were defiant and actually filed a protest with the referees over actions by the Wang-Yu team.
"If they play right, the Chinese team, this wouldn't happen," said South Korean head coach Sung Han-kook. "It's not like the Olympics spirit to play like this. How could the No. 1 pair in the world play like this?"
Sung said his players in the second doubles match, Ha and Kim, Tuesday "did the same" because they didn't want to play the other Korean team, Jung and Kim, to open the quarters.
"Nobody likes playing against strong players," Sung said.
Kim Moon-soo, an assistant coach for South Korea, said he believed the Chinese "broke the Olympic spirit" by missing their serves.
Yu, one of the Chinese players, denied that she and her playing partner, who'd already booked a ticket to the quarters, were trying to throw their match.
"We would try hard in every match if they were elimination games," she said. "We have a game (Wednesday) and we were conserving energy for that. The most important thing is the elimination match."
For the first time in Olympics, a combination of round-robin group stage and knockout phase was introduced. Sixteen doubles teams were paired into four groups of four, with the top two teams from each group progressing to the quarters. But this format can be vulnerable against attempts to manipulate results to set up easier matchups in the knockout stage. (LONDON-Yonhap)