Lifetime ban for ref attack

2008-08-23 17:01

Shigemi Sato

Beijing - Cuban taekwondo exponent Angel Valodia Matos who attacked a referee in a dramatic final session of competition at the Beijing Olympics on Saturday and was instantly given a lifetime ban from international competition.

Matos, a Sydney 2000 gold medallist, chased Swedish referee Chakir Chelbat and kicked him in the head after being disqualified in a men's quarter-final bout.

The 31-year-old Cuban erupted when he was sent off for taking too much injury time in the middle of the second round of his +80kg bout against world silver medallist Arman Chilmanov of Kazakhstan.

The World Taekwondo Federation immediately said Matos and his coach would be permanently barred from all championships it promotes.

"This is a strong violation of the spirit of taekwondo and the Olympic Games," the announcer said in the stadium reading from a World Taekwondo Federation statement.

"The sanctions are the following and are effective immediately: Lifetime ban of the coach and athlete in all championships sanctioned by the World Taekwondo Federation and at the same time, all records of this athlete at the Beijing Games will immediately be erased."

Chilmanov was surprised at Matos's "unsportsmanlike manner" and did not believe the Cuban would have been able to continue anyway after failing to recover within the regulation one-minute injury time.

Went on to win the bronze medal

"He got injured in the bout. To me it was obvious he was unable to continue. His toe on his left foot was broken," said Chilmanov who went on to win the bronze medal.

A women's bout also ended in controversy when China's two-time champion Chen Zhong had her quarter-final victory overturned on appeal.

Britain's Sarah Stevenson claimed she'd been robbed when the judges failed to award her two points for a high-kick to Chen's head 10 seconds from time, and the Chinese went on to win 1-0.

"They're blatantly robbing me of going into the semi-finals," Stevenson said immediately afterwards.

"There's one thing I hate about this sport is that the judges can control people's lives and can take points away and they can do whatever they want."

But she lodged an appeal and for the first time since the high-speed martial art made its debut at the 2000 Games the jury reversed the result and Stevenson went on to win a bronze medal.

South Korea won their fourth taekwondo gold medal from their fourth outing in the Games when Cha Dong-Min beat Athens silver medallist Alexandros Nikolaidis of Greece 5-4 in the +80kg heavyweight final.

It was the first major international title for Cha who celebrates his 22nd birthday on Sunday.

It was also South Korea's first sweep of all divisions they contested, after they won three in Sydney and two in Athens.

Countries are restricted to a maximum four fighters, two men and two women, with the quota originally introduced to prevent South Korea, the homeland of the sport, monopolising the medals.

World champion Maria del Rosario Espinoza beat Norway's Nina Solheim to win the women's +67kg heavyweight gold, giving Mexico its second Olympic title after Guillermo Perez triumphed earlier in the men's -58kg competition.

- SAPA