Olympics badminton: Eight women disqualified from doubles

Eight badminton players have been disqualified from the women's doubles competition after being accused of "not using one's best efforts to win" and "conducting oneself in a manner that is clearly abusive or detrimental to the sport".

Two pairs from South Korea and one each from China and Indonesia made a series of basic errors in Tuesday's matches.

The competition has a round-robin stage which means losing one game in the group can ultimately lead to an easier match-up in the knockout stage. All four pairs were accused of wanting to lose, in an attempt to manipulate the draw for the next round.

But one Chinese player said their actions were due to them trying to preserve energy ahead of the knockout stages.


A South Korean appeal was rejected by the Badminton World Federation, while Indonesia withdrew an appeal.

Their places in the last eight will be taken by the pairs who finished third and fourth in the qualifying groups concerned.


In the first women's doubles China's Yu Yang and Wang Xiaoli and South Koreans Jung Kyung-eun and Kim Ha-na were, as accused, trying to loose to avoid playing China's Tian Quing and Zhao Yunlei in the next round.

Speaking before the disqualification verdict was released, South Korea's coach Sung Han-kook, said: "The Chinese started this. They did it first."

The later match between South Korean third seeds Ha Jung-Eun and Kim Min-Jung and Indonesian pair Meiliana Juahari and Greysia Polii was played out in a similar atmosphere.