Games-Fiery Taufik ordered off courts after outburst Reuters via Yahoo!Malaysia News NAKHON RATCHASIMA, Thailand, Dec 12 - Olympic badminton champion Taufik Hidayat was ordered off the courts by security staff after a heated stand-off with match officials at the Southeast Asian Games on Wednesday. After beating Malaysian Yeoh Kay Bin to scrape through to the semi-finals, the irate Indonesian gestured angrily at a line judge and waved his racket in the umpire's face before reluctantly shaking his hand and marching off the court. Moments later, when he returned to the courts to calm down, a shirtless Taufik began remonstrating with worried-looking volunteers and officials before security guards surrounded him and told him to leave. Taufik, 26, was unhappy with Thai officials' handling of his game, seeing a link with the title chances of fellow semi-finalist and home favourite Boonsak Ponsana. "If the Thais want to win the gold medal so much, I'll just give it to them," a furious Taufik told Reuters after being sent to the stands. "The judging was terrible, bad calls happened to me so many times. I told him never to do that to another player." The former world champion added: "I don't know what happened there, I don't know why they had to call security. "They said I wasn't allowed to sit in these seats because they're VIP seats, but all the Thai players have been sitting here for days." Taufik is one of badminton's most colourful characters and is as famous for his speed and deadly backhand as he is his passion and fiery temperament. Some 5,000 athletes from Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, East Timor, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Brunei, Myanmar and the Philippines, are contesting the SEA Games -- famed for fierce rivalry, accusations of bias and tit-for-tat squabbles -- with 475 gold medals up for grabs in 43 sports. Hosts Thailand are runaway leaders in the medals standings with 116 golds, 59 more than second-placed Vietnam. The Games conclude on Saturday.
one thing for sure, TH has high entertainment value, just like TH fans over here as well Now TH understands what really bad officiating is like.
Are we surprised??.. ..the funny thing i noticed was, if Taufik was offered to stay in a nicer hotel unlike his teammates, shouldn't he be offered to sit in those VIP seats??.... Actually in the SEA Individual Event Semifinals thread, the article (not sure how accurate it is) posted by IieSumirat (post #19), mentioned that Taufik actually was escorted away when he sat in one of the line-judge's chair, whilst he was still furious and emotional over the dubious calls. He also complained why he couldn't sit in one of those chairs; rather was asked not to sit there, i guess, to cool off. ..yeah, but one thing though, usually it's Taufik who's doing the entertaining and complaining and finally getting booted off the court; not so much of his fans, esp. in BC..
again bad line calls?? I tot oni China? Now Thai oso 4lowing? Poor Taufik.. Nvm la Taufik, as long as we know u r the best player...
Free-style "Translation" on Sina. Let's get a good laugh. http://sports.sina.com.cn/o/2007-12-12/21153354279.shtml
It appears in today's Singapore's Straits Times too. And for a moment when I read the header this morning, I thought TH was disqualified (ordered off court!) by the match officials - I thought oh no this will create a big drama, but fortunately the incident happened after the match. But you can imagine this sets a pretty tense prelude if TH and Boosak proceed further to the final.
No wonder yesterday match took a long time. Hmmm,.,. kinda like this statement, "If the Thais want to win the gold medal so much, I'll just give it to them," a furious Taufik told Reuters after being sent to the stands.
It is not good to see the tournament in disrepute, for whatever reason. How are we going to enhance the popularity of the sport if badminton umpiring and judging become biased.
Its only SEA games, TH should just take it as a holiday. Next year in Beijing is the big one. This Korat thingy is a mickey mouse trip.
A joke indeed. It is clearly a translation from the English version and it is terribly translated by this Mr(孟巍). I can translate it better myself.
"If the Thais want to win the gold medal so much, I'll just give it to them," a furious Taufik told Reuters after being sent to the stands. I think that should be umpire's mistakes, not for Thai players.
maybe the linesmen were thais. that's why taufik said that. apart from that, i am interested to know what really happened that day. i wonder if anybody have a footage or something.
TH also complained about unfair line judging in Busan Asian Games 2002 when INA met KOR in Men's Team Final and KOR won gold. Nakhon Ratchasima 2007, once again TH can't control his emotion properly, maybe he needs anger therapy to minimize his temperamental attitude particularly to face the most important event next year in Beijing.