Published on November 30, 2005

Thai taekwondo officials and team members were outraged yesterday after Olympic medal winner Yaowapa Boorapolchai lost her first round fight against a local girl after some dubious decisions by the judges.

Despite wining two gold medals in the taekwondo competition yesterday, Yaowapa’s shock loss put a dampener on any celebrations the Thai squad had planned.

Before the competition started at the packed Cuneta Astrodome in Pasay, the Thai squad hoped to win at least three gold medals from Yaowapa, who is better known as Nong View, Date Sutthikulkarn and Chonnapas Premwaew.

But fears of biased judging were already rife at the venue and one group of Thai supporters held up a big sign reading “Fair Games” before the competition started.

With her mother Somsri in the stadium cheering on her daughter, Yaowapa faced local girl Loraine Lorelie Catalan in the first round. But it quickly became obvious that whenever Yaowapa landed a kick on her opponent, points from the judges panel did not register on the electric scoring board. The Thai star trailed Catalan 1-0 at the end of the first round.

It was the same story in the second round when Yaowapa hardly scored any points despite the fact that she landed several powerful kicks to the body of the Filipina. Yaowapa was trailing 2-1 after round two.

The gallant Yaowapa ignored the noisy Philippine fans and landed several kicks and punches on Catalan and went from trailing 2-1 to level the score at 3-3 and then 4-4. The match then went to sudden death – whoever lands the first blow wins – to determine the

winner.

Yaowapa hit her target with several kicks, but no points registered. To the Thai’s great astonishment, Catalan kicked her back and was given a point, then raised her hand in victory.

With the local girl claiming victory, Yaowapa ran back to the Thai camp, grabbed the “Fair Games” sign and marched around the stadium.

“I’m not disappointed with my form. I did my best,” she said. “I was prepared for whatever would happen here. I learned after the first round that I might lose to a local,” added Yaowapa.

“I think I landed several kicks on her, but the points never came up in favour of me. The one that upset me the most was in sudden death. I think my kick was right on the target, but my points remained the same. She hit back, but did not even hit the target.”

Preechachan Wiriyanupappong

The Nation

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