Illegal shoes cause Vietnamese athletes to lose silver medals
HanoiLo Thi Thanh, the second runner-up in the women’s 10,000m content of the SEA Games on the afternoon of May 18, had the result canceled and was not awarded a silver medal for violating regulations on competition shoes.
On the My Dinh run, Lo Thi Thanh finished second with a record of 36 minutes 32 seconds. She and Pham Thi Hong Le – teammate who finished first with 35 minutes 56 seconds 38 – ran to celebrate the first and second victory for the Vietnamese team.
But while Lo Thi Thanh waited to receive the medal, the Singapore team complained that the host country’s athlete wore inappropriate shoes when competing. At an emergency meeting shortly after, the technical subcommittee of athletics at the 31st SEA Games agreed with the complaint from Singapore. They therefore canceled Lo Thi Thanh’s achievement, and promoted the athletes Se Mar Khin (Myanmar, 38 minutes 22 seconds 01). Goh Chui Ling (Singapore, 39 minutes 22 seconds 26) received the remaining two medals in this content.
Lo Thi Thanh on the women’s 10,000m run on the afternoon of May 18 with shoes that are considered illegal. Image: Pham Chieu
According to Nguyen Manh Hung, General Secretary of the Vietnam Athletics Federation, the organizers checked Lo Thi Thanh’s shoes before entering the competition, and determined her original shoes were not suitable because of their support features. achievement support. The Vietnamese athlete then changed to another pair of shoes and entered the competition. But in the end, the referees still canceled Lo Thi Thanh’s performance when there was a complaint.
However, reply VnExpress This morning, May 19, Mr. Cuddikotta Valson – representative of the Asian Athletics Federation, head of the technical subcommittee in athletics at the 31st SEA Games – said that the referees did the right thing.
According to Mr. Valson, World Athletics (WA) makes it very clear that athletes are responsible for competing in valid shoes and know the type of shoes they use. The list of invalid shoes is publicly updated weekly on the WA website.
“The shoe regulation is similar to the doping rule, whereby athletes must be completely clean when entering the competition, and the organizers do not need to check this before the competition, but will do it randomly. after the competition,” he said. “The referees may check once to determine if the athlete is wearing the correct shoe, but they are not obligated to check again once the athlete has changed his shoe.”
Mr. Valson supervised the 31st SEA Games marathon content race in My Dinh, Hanoi on the morning of May 19. Image: Duc Dong
“Here, the Vietnamese athlete and her coach are responsible for this unfortunate incident,” Valson emphasized.
The Vietnam Athletics Federation, through General Secretary Nguyen Manh Hung, has sent a document to the Asian Athletics Federation, proposing to review the case, and is waiting for the results.
Nhat Tao
at Blogtuan.info – Source: vnexpress.net – Read the original article here
