Ugly Taekwondo violence precedes South Korean win
Saturday, 23 Aug 2008 17:31
A tempestuous day of taekwondo
Defending gold medallist Angel Valodia Matos received a lifetime ban from international competitions after kicking the referee of his bronze medal taekwondo match in the head.
Cuban Matos had been judged to have forfeited the repechage match after exceeding his one-minute time period for injury by Swedish referee Chakir Chelbat.
He and his coach reacted with anger to the decision. The coach punched Chelbat before Matos kicked him in the head, forcing other referees to intervene.
That came before the gold medal match in the men's +80kg class, when South Korea's Cha Dong-min won his first major championship title.
He beat Greece's Alexandros Nikolaidis 5-4 in a close match, narrowly maintaining a one-point advantage achieved after taking the first round 3-2.