Cuban Athlete Is Barred for Kicking Referee in the Face
A Cuban tae kwon do athlete committed one of the biggest breaches of sportsmanship at an Olympics, kicking a referee in the face in anger after he was disqualified from his match Saturday.
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Ángel Valodia Matos, 31, charged at the referee, Chakir Chelbat of Sweden, after Chelbat disqualified him for taking too long in an injury timeout. Matos angrily pushed another judge, ran at Chelbat and kicked him, and spit on the mat as he was grabbed and ushered out of the arena by security.
The World Taekwondo Federation said after the match that Matos, along with his coach, Leodis González, would be banned from all its future sanctioned events and his records at the Beijing Games would be erased.
The stadium announcer read a statement from the W.T.F., saying, “This is a strong violation of the spirit of tae kwon do and the Olympic Games. The sanctions are the following and are effective immediately: Lifetime ban of the coach and athlete in all championships sanctioned by the World Taekwondo Federation and at the same time, all records of this athlete at the Beijing Games will immediately be erased.”
However, W.T.F. officials later said their ban of Matos was not official, and they would discuss the situation with the International Olympic Committee.
Matos was winning his over-80 kilogram (176 pounds) match against Arman Chilmanov of Kazakhstan, 3-2, in the second round when Chilmanov struck Matos, who fell to the ground. More than a minute passed as he awaited medical attention, and he was disqualified by Chelbat because tae kwon do rules allow just a minute for an injury timeout.
“To me it was obvious he was unable to continue,” said Chilmanov, the bronze medal winner. “His toe on his left foot was broken.”
Matos won the gold medal in this division in the 2000 Olympics and finished 11th in 2004. After Matos’s disqualification, González angrily declared that Chelbat had fixed the match.
That was not the only controversy Saturday: a women’s quarterfinal victory was overturned on appeal. China’s Chen Zhong won her match over Britain’s Sarah Stevenson, 1-0. But Stevenson protested that she was not given 2 points for a kick to Chen’s head late in the match. Officials decided in Stevenson’s favor and she was awarded the victory.
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