bluewhale06

Taekwondo — a sport that has been plagued by constant complaints of poor refereeing — is in the news again.

The latest row is centered on Taiwan athlete Yang Su-chun, who was disqualified from the Asian Games Wednesday (November 17) after a game official ruled that she was wearing extra sensors inside her socks to help her scoring.

Yang, who was leading by a runaway 9-0 over her Vietnamese competitor in the first round of the three-round bout that she should have won, broke down in bitter tears, sat on the game mat and refused to leave.

Her version of the story is that her socks were approved by game officials before the bout. She said she could not understand why she was disqualified.

The Taiwan team lodged a protest, but the ruling stood. And more, the sport's Asian ruling body proposed that Yang and her coach be given match bans because of their protests.

Such bans could be deadly serious for athletes and coaches in the game.

Last year, another taekwondo row at the East Asian Games in Hong Kong saw referees hand down a verdict against a Taiwanese athlete. One of the referees, who was from Taiwan, supported the decision.

The Taiwan team protested to no avail. Later Taiwan's taekwondo association imposed a ban on that Taiwanese referee, prohibiting him from coaching and teaching the Korea-born martial art. The Taiwanese referee has been out of a job since then. We do not want to see Yang, a 2008 Olympic bronze medalist, and her coach suffer the same fate. Her protest seems justified.

Given her claim about the pre-game approval of her socks, we cannot understand how Yang could have been disqualified.

Such controversies have often invited conspiracy theories. In the past, Korean referees have been accused of making unfair judgments in favour of their own country's athletes.

This time, Yang, a favourite to win the gold in the 49kg division, was victimised, according to one theory, to prevent her from challenging China's Wu Jingyu.

Such theories may be false, but bad taekwondo refereeing has constantly fuelled them.

The socks, with electronic sensors, were introduced last year to official taekwondo bouts to improve refereeing. But it seems that the technology has brought new problems to the game.

The Asian Games do not provide socks for competitors. Every team has to supply their own.

The number of sensors built into the socks would affect the scoring, and Yang was accused of adding extra sensors to her socks against the rules.

It is a very serious accusation, because it implies that Yang cheated. We have often accused Korean referees of “cheating”, but now it is one of our athletes that has been accused.

The taekwondo world governing body held a press conference later on Wednesday to explain the decision, but it really failed to convince us that it was a fair call.

Its top official said Yang had an unfair advantage due to her equipment, and therefore had to be disqualified.

There are questions we must ask. Are they really saying that Yang deliberately added the sensors knowing that she would gain an advantage?

Yang said the socks had been approved by the game officials. Are they implying that Yang added these sensors after the pre-match examination?

If Yang was clean in terms of “cheating”, then whose fault was it for allowing her to wear “unqualified” socks? Should Yang bear the blame for mistakes that game officials made?

We also must ask whether such a controversy-prone sport should continue to be sanctioned by the International Olympic Committee.

Although its athletes have been doing well, earning quite a few medals in international games, is it really wise for Taiwan to invest so much in the sport?

Sportsmanship means fair play. But we have seen so much unfairness in taekwondo.