Opening day of LG Cup marred by protests, disputes
Opening day of LG Cup marred by protests, disputes
Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Protests over match scoring and claims of participation
legitimacy marred the opening day of the LG Cup, a national tae
kwon do championship, at the Senayan sports complex here on
Thursday.
A total of 367 tae kwon doins are taking part in the planned
four-day event, which has eight classes in the men's and women's
categories.
With the event also being the qualifier for the upcoming
Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Vietnam this December as well as
the 2004 National Sports Championship (PON) in Palembang, South
Sumatra, rivalries got so heated some continued well after
matches.
Top two athletes will be given places in the SEA Games
training camp while PON will allow those ranked up to eighth in
respective categories.
Thursday's program comprised the men's and women's finweight
and middleweight classes. The matches were still underway late
into the evening.
The Papua and East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) teams quite upset by
the scoring and ended up protesting to the committee after they
felt they had been victimized.
Saver Adam of NTT met Antonio of Bengkulu in the opening round
of the men's finweight match with the latter winning 3-1.
However, the NTT team believed that their athlete deserved
another two points. Their argument, being supported by the jury,
was accepted, but only one point was reinstated.
Papua claimed Meilda Egana should have won over national star
Ika Dian Fitria of East Java in the women's finweight. But unlike
NTT, Papua did not follow the procedures properly so their
protest was tossed out and Meilda was handed the loss.
The procedure that the missed was a "protest deposit"
amounting to Rp 500,000 (US$58.8) as stipulated in the rules.
"My athlete snapped her opponent with a kick on the head
twice. That should be four points for us," Papua team's coach
Daniel Lucas said.
"I will offer two options, either a rematch or handing us the
victory. Otherwise, we will gather on the floor and sit there as
a form of protest," he added.
Meanwhile, Maj. Gen. (ret) Suharto, the chairman of the
Indonesian Tae kwon do Association (TI), called for the Papua
officials to comply with the tournament's rules.
Earlier, Suharto had to intervene to in an attempt to
facilitate reconciliation between the two teams from North
Sumatra, which resulted from an internal conflict within the
provincial chapter's organizational board.
It was decided that Young Berlan group from N. Sumatra, who
brought 11 athletes, had to give way for the 16 athletes led by
Bangkit Sitepu group to continue their participation in the
tournament. But, Berlan's athletes will still be given the chance
of joining either SEA Games or PON during the planned local
tournament as recommended by Suharto.