Gymnastics judge defends changing score
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A Chinese judge under investigation by international gymnastics officials for falsifying the score of a Chinese gymnast said he was trying to prevent an "unfair result."
Shao Bin, who is being investigated by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG), said his decision to improve the score of Chinese gymnast Zhang Chenglong at the 2010 Asian Games were intended to spare him an "unfair result", Shao told CCTV5 in an interview on Wednesday.
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Korea's Kim Soo Myun (left) and China's Zhang Chenglong (middle) share the gold medal for floor exercise in Guangzhou. [Sina.com] |
The FIG announced this week it has launched a disciplinary case against Shao for altering Zhang's execution score during the floor exercise finals at November's Asian Games in Guangzhou.
Shao added points to Zhang's score to move him into a tie for the gold medal with Korea's Kim Soo Myun.
Shao, dean of the school of physical education at Shanghai University, told CCTV5 that he and Korean copanelist Nam Seung Ku had reached a consensus on changing the result because Zhang was underscored.
"At first, when Kim's score came out, Zhang's score was lower than Kim's, but actually Zhang's performance was way better than Kim's," said Shao. "The placing was reversed — not only I, but the Korean judge thought so, too."
"We thought it would be a shame if this result were unfairly published, so we agreed that the score should be changed," he added.
According to FIG rules, the most senior judge on the difficulty panel has the right to decide the final score.
"Based on my understanding of the rules, I have the right to change the score," Shao told CCTV5. "One should ask the superior judge before changing the score, but I skipped this step because time was limited and the result was really unfair."
Judges enter scores into a computer database accessible to other judges and officials, he said. If they thought the score was unreasonable, they could have called us or locked the score. "The technical official signed off on the score, which means he approved it," he said. "But four months later, they accuse me of violating the rules. I don't know why. This is unfair to me."
Shao is in Beijing now preparing material for his FIG hearing.
"Hopefully, there will be a just outcome," he said. "I have to protect my rights and interests. This incident has brought me too much trouble. I will resort to legal action if necessary."
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