Inside Incheon: Medal antics turn Games into a farce
Indian boxer refuses to accept her bronze while Malaysians are reluctant to return wushu gold
One athlete refuses to accept her medal while another refuses to give hers back. What on earth are these Games coming to?
Indian boxer Sarita Devi snubbed organisers when she refused to accept her bronze medal in protest at what she called "biased judgment" after losing her semi-final against South Korea's Park Ji-na, who won on a unanimous decision.
At the medal ceremony, Devi took the medal in her hand and then walked over to Park and appeared to slip it over her head. Boxing officials have now said they will look at taking action.
A few columns ago I mentioned the doping case involving Athlete X. At the time I didn't want to disclose the name (though an Asian Olympic source had revealed it to me) because she had asked for her B sample to be tested after she was found positive for a banned substance.
Organisers have now disclosed that Malaysia's wushu gold medallist Tai Cheau Xuen as the guilty party. Her B sample was also tainted. But the Malaysian National Olympic Committee is refusing to return her gold medal.
They insisted that Tai was innocent and claimed that on the day she was tested, there were five other samples on the table and that hers was accidentally switched.
It is a far-fetched theory, as drug-testing officials know a positive result could end a career. But Malaysia took the case to higher authorities, the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
A special division of CAS set up at the Games dismissed the appeal yesterday.
My source says Tai's case and that of Cambodian soft tennis player Yi Sophany occurred on the same day and both were found to have taken the same banned stimulant, sibutramine. So maybe Malaysia might have had a case.
So one athlete doesn't want her medal and the other will not give hers up.
In the case of Devi, there has always been an underlying belief that a host nation's athletes are favoured. The judges were from Tunisia, Italy and Poland and they all gave the fight to Park by identical margins of 39-37. Were all three wrong? Indian boxing officials believe so.
Officialdom hasn't been at its best at these Games. Bahrain's Ruth Jebet who was stripped of her steeplechase gold medal just as she was about to get on the podium. Officials later said it was a mistake and reinstated her.
On Wednesday night the top three finishers in the men's 800 metres were all disqualified for obstruction and breaking lane regulations. The fourth-placed runner, an Iraqi, suddenly found himself the gold medal winner.
Things are taking a turn for the bizarre at these Games. Thankfully, it will end soon.
Mongolian boxer Tugstsogt Nyambayar refused to leave the ring for five minutes after losing to a South Korean opponent. His protest against the jury was also rejected.
