National Games: Taekwondo director replaced amid match-fixing allegations
IOA president PT Usha said it is shocking that medals were allegedly decided even before the start of competitions
Dehradun: The officiating of the taekwondo competition at the National Games has been overhauled by the Indian Olympic Association after receiving serious complaints of “manipulation” and “match fixing”.
IOA, in a statement said, it had “received complaints that some officials appointed by the Taekwondo Federation of India had already fixed the outcome of matches in 10 of the 16 weight categories long before the start of the competition.”
“The asking price is ₹3 lakh for gold medal, ₹2 lakh for silver and ₹1 lakh for bronze,” the IOA said it was informed.
Taekwondo’s director competition, T Praveen Kumar, has been replaced with S Dinesh Kumar while 50% of the nominated ‘Technical Officials’ have also been replaced with duly qualified officials with international or national certification. The matches will be video recorded and a team of officials nominated by the Games Technical Conduct Committee will be present during the four-day taekwondo competition starting Tuesday.
IOA president PT Usha said it is shocking that National Games medals were allegedly decided away from the field of play even before the start of competitions.
“At the Indian Olympic Association, we are committed to being fair to all our athletes and protect them from people conniving to manipulate the competition and tarnish the image of the National Games.”
Acting on the complaint, IOA’s three-member Prevention of Manipulation of Competition (PMC) Committee probed the matter and recommended changes. The IOA panel found that the director of competition had named office-bearers and executive committee members of some state associations and an equipment vendor for the selection trials as Sports Specific Volunteers.
“It is important that we take on board the recommendations of the PMC Committee and protect the integrity of the 38th National Games Uttarakhand,” said GTCC chairman Sunaina Kumari.
“Taekwondo players reached out to IOA and said that last year during the National Championships in Pondicherry they had decided on the top eight players and allegedly money was taken. We asked PMC to probe into the issue,” said an IOA official.
The sport of taekwondo has been under scanner due to two federations claiming to be the official body. IOA does not recognise any of them.
