An almighty row over cheating broke out yesterday at the taekwondo hall in Busan, South Korea, but it didn't stop Taiwan's Huang Chih-hsiung from taking gold in the event.
Huang beat his South Korean adversary with style in the final as a baying crowd rooted for its home country hero.
His victory, a silver medal in wushu and two bronze medals in karate brought Taiwan's total medal count to 45 as the Games near an end. Taiwan has nine golds, 15 silvers and 21 bronzes to give the country its current No. 8 ranking.
PHOTO: REUTERS
But earlier in the day there was a stink when Iranian taekwondo athlete Yossef Karami refused to leave the mat after being judged the loser in his bout with South Korea's Kim Kyung-hun.
Karami's coach had been claiming throughout the bout that blows Karami had landed were not being counted and he blew up at the end of the fight, jumping onto the mat and gesticulating wildly at the judges.
Bottles of water, buns and other objects were hurled onto the mat by irate Iranian fans and play was interrupted for 20 minutes before order was restored.
Speaking later to the Taipei Times, Karami said there was no doubt whatsoever the bout was fixed.
He said the South Korean Taekwondo Union decided which referees officiated which fight at the Games and this was the source of the problem. He said he did not know whether these officials were paid off or just wanted to do as they were bid to curry favor.
"Two or three referees from India and China are very suspect. All the players accuse them of being from South Korea, not China or India," Karami said.
"In very important competitions the Koreans always put these same officials in to referee the fights.
"There is cheating, of course there is cheating, it is very clear. It is always Korean with a referee from some other country," he said.
The Taipei Times approached the match judges three times but could get no comment. On the third occasion, Asian Taekwondo Union chief Sim Myeong-koo ran away.
The controversy made no difference for Huang, however, whose win at Gudeok Gymnasium yesterday reversed a losing streak against South Korean opponents over the past two years.
Despite winning the world championship in 1997 and taking silver at other major events since then, plus a bronze medal at the Sydney Olympics, 25-year-old Huang has been unable to fulfill his early promise.
"This time I made a decision to win the gold medal," he said. "I am very excited because I have respected the gold medal for so long.
"I missed out two times recently and lost to the South Koreans at the world championship last year and at this year's Asian championships, so I was determined not to lose again."
After a relatively easy passage in the preliminary rounds, Huang got off to a good start in his final against Kim Hyang-soo, getting underneath his taller opponent to score body blows, taking the first round, 3-2.
In the second round he blocked, bobbed and kicked to keep the advantage and goaded his rival into attack, then counter-kicked with precision to lead 6-2 after two rounds.
The third and final round was powerfully exciting with Kim going for head kicks and two points and Huang trying to defend his lead by ducking and weaving.
It was 6-4 and the clock was at 30 seconds, but one kick would square the scores and the judge would have to make the decision as to the winner.
Fortunately that wasn't necessary. The final score was 7-5 and 5-4 after penalty points were taken off and the crowd expressed its disappointment with boos and catcalls before applauding the gallant Huang, who ran around with his Chinese Taipei flag.
Afterwards, coach Ho Wei-hsing said, "Huang trained very hard for this and deserved his victory. Our plan was to get close because of his [the South Korean's] height advantage and it worked."
Asked whether the judging throughout the competition had been fair, Ho said different rules were applied in Taiwan.
Pressed by the Taipei Times as to whether he was satisfied with the judging, Ho said yes.
The previous day, however, he had thrown a bottle of water into the ring when Wu Yen-ni had lost and the day before he had complained openly about the judging when Chu Mu-yen was beaten by a South Korean in his final.
Taiwan sports minister Lin Te-fu said he watched the taekwondo final yesterday and was satisfied that it had been fair.
"I heard that there had been some unfair decisions but I have no evidence of this," he said.
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