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Thursday, August 2, 2012

Olympic Infamy in Badminton

Badminton made the headlines yesterday for the wrong reasons. 

The crime: World no.1 pair of Yu Yang and Wang Xiaoli 'threw' the match against a weak Korean pair so that they don't have to meet their compatriots in the knockout stage. Yu Yang and Wang Xiaoli promptly lost. The jockeying of position to avoid stronger opponents set the stage for another kangaroo games involving potential opponents of  world no. 1 Yu Yang and Wang Xiaoli. This time it involved the Korean and Indonesian pair who both play 'marco polo' or truth or dare. "You win please? Oh no you win please...Both wanted to lose to avoid the dreaded world no.1. 

The punishment: 4 pairs, total 8 players were suspended. 

Aftermath: Eliminated pairs of Russia, Canada, Australia and South Africa took their place. 

The crime scene:

Here Yu Yang and Wang Xiaoli allowed a flick serve to hit home without even moving to try to intercept the shuttle.
The BWF/Olympic official had to enter the court and told the players to play properly and threatened to disqualify the 2 pairs.


Post mortem
Yu Yang quits badminton for good, the head coach, Li Yongbo apologized to the media. 

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