VANCOUVER, Feb. 24 (Yonhap) -- South Korean women's team was disqualified in the 3,000 meter relay short track event on Wednesday for impeding a Chinese player.Yonhap has been writing this story in waves. First there was a one-line report, now there is this detailed story above, and eventually the refined (i.e., proofread) story will appear. Yonhap is usually pretty good at presenting well edited articles, so I'm guessing the writer was trying to get this out as quickly as possible.
South Korean team -- Lee Eun-byul, Park Seung-hi, Cho Ha-ri and Kim Min-jung -- raced for five consecutive Olympic gold medal in the event, finished first in the relay event at the Pacific Coliseum, leaving China in second and Canada in third.
But the referees declared South Korea's disqualification, saying that a South Korean skater pushed a Chinese skater in the final lap, lifting the China to the first place. South Korean team officials strongly protested the controversial decision, but the referees did not reversed it.
As a result, Canada won silver and the Unites State took bronze.
Lee Seung-hoon got gold when the Dutchman in front of him was disqualified, so I hope these lumps will be taken in the spirit of "win some, lose some" (judging decisions, that is). Get psyched up for Kim Yuna to perform instead.
Although I am biased, I do have to say this was arguable....even the refs took forever to discuss it. Bob Costas said it best after they aired this race saying that the "Koreans have been burned before" and it definitely will not go quietly in South Korea. I really wanted the Korean women to get this one...they were so much better looking than the Chinese women team~.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to look for this one online then. Sounds exciting.
ReplyDeleteIt would be nice if these things are clearer. At least they might still get some sort of hero worship back home. Or maybe they can go to the DC area and join Kim Dong-sung.
you win some you lose some? if you have this mindset then nothing will ever be done to correct things. every race has got to be taken separately and officials must do everything to improve officiating.
ReplyDeleteas for 10000m long track incident, Kramer skated 2 consecutive laps on the inside lane. it's obviously going to cut considerable amount of time off his race and this DQ was obvious.
I wonder if this story would be a bigger deal in Korea if the Americans or Japanese had gotten the gold.
ReplyDeleteAre you under the impression that South Koreans love the Chinese?
ReplyDeleteYou must also not be aware of Korean hatred of the Swiss.
Didn't those Chinese anti-Korean prostests occur right around the time Koreans were protesting the Chinese putting MELAMINE in BABY FORMULA??
ReplyDeleteOr wait, I forgot, Koreans didn't really protest Chinese putting MELAMINE in their BABY FORMULA...
They were too worked up at the time about the non-existent threat of American beef.