India appeals BWF to review its decision on protest

India has filed an appeal with the Badminton World Federation (BWF) to review its decision to reject their protest against the result of the Group B match between Japan and Chinese Taipei, which resulted in the ouster of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa from the Olympic Games.

India coach Pullela Gopichand on Wednesday accused the Japanese pair of Mizuki Fujii and Reika Kakiiwa of tanking their last Group B match against Taipei even as eight other women's doubles players were kicked out of the Games by BWF after a probe against match-fixing allegations.

"We had put in a protest this morning and the BWF has come back saying that they didn't find any bias or anything beyond the ordinary in the matches. We've filed an appeal to review that decision," Gopichand said.

"In group B, (Chinese) Taipei had to and wanted to win, but Japan wanted to lose to be second in the group to avoid China," he added.

Gopichand said so far the BWF has indicated that no action will be taken against the Japanese pair.

India's complaint was made before the BWF announced the expulsion of the Korean pairs of Jung Kyung Eun and Kim Ha Na and Ha Jung Eun and Kim Min Jung, the top seeds and gold medal favourites Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang of China, and Indonesian duo Greysia Polii and Meiliana Jauhari.

According to Gopichand, who won the All-England champion in 2001, the match-throwing did not stop there.

He claimed that once China lost to Denmark in group D yesterday morning, Japan "wanted to be second" in group B.

Fujii and Kakiiwa went down 21-19, 21-11 to the unseeded Cheng Wen Hsing and Chein Yu Chin of Chinese Taipei at the start of the afternoon session. Despite Jwala and Ashwini winning against the Chinese Taipei pair and Singapore combo, the Indians failed to qualify.

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