Posted on 08/23/2008 10:36:01 AM PDT by kellynla
BEIJING -- Cuba's Angel Matos deliberately kicked a referee square in the face after he was disqualified in a bronze-medal match, prompting the World Taekwondo Federation to recommend that he be banned for life.
"We didn't expect anything like what you have witnessed to occur," said WTF secretary general Yang Jin-suk. "I am at a loss for words."
Yang also recommended Matos' coach be banned.
(Excerpt) Read more at sports.espn.go.com ...
WTF indeed. Matos is a world class jackass.
What the hell could he be possibly thinking?
The audio reveals that Matos asked the ref, “Are you gellin’??”
This is assault. China should arrest this jack*ss.
I found this on youtube, but it is in French (Algeria). Perhaps someone can find an English one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnDA0MJcG_I
Why arrest him? Just send him home.
By not bringing home a medal to the workers paridise of Cuba his entire extended family will loose their cushy jobs rolling cigars and will now have to work in the sugarcane fields. and what happens to him will be unspeakable because if you speak about it you will be shot at the Che Guevara memorial wall.
I would think that a few years in a Chinese prison would do wonders for his attitude
I don’t know if it is true, but I read elsewhere that the ref didn’t give Matos the mandatory warning that his 1 min recovery time was about to end. Then when it ended without Matos (who was unaware it was ending) returning, Matos ‘lost’ the match. Sort of the equivalent of a boxing referee counting “1-2-3-4-5-10! You’re outta here!”
IF true, it would explain a lot.
He should have been arrested. What a coward.
It explains nothing. IF true, you would file an appeal, not assault the ref. A kick in the head by a trained martial artist could easily kill or maim.
"He was too strict," Leudis Gonzalez said, referring to the decision to disqualify Matos. Afterward, he charged the match was fixed, accusing the Kazakhs of offering him money.
My first thought was that it would be unfair to ban the coach for Matos' inexcusable behavior against the Swedish referee.
But after reading the entire article, I decided the coach probably nourished his attitude.
“Yang Jin-suk”
Does anyone else find this name amusing?
They better get their raft together.
“I read elsewhere that the ref didn’t give Matos the mandatory warning that his 1 min recovery time was about to end”
Nah... from the audio it’s very clear that a warning is announced at six seconds.
Not sure about the Olympics, but in TKD tournaments, the center judge is the highest ranking black belt. I wonder of the officials were rank? If so, they should have seen this coming with the guys angry state.
Well, every country gets to have their own Tonya Harding moments in the olympics. Problem is, what’s he gonna do now? defect to China?
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