“Chinese Judge Cheated”
Agencie France Presse:
A judging row flared on the Olympic shooting ranges after Australian veteran Russell Mark alleged that Chinese judges had helped a local win the Double Trap bronze medal.
Mark, 44, the Atlanta Games gold medallist who finished fifth in the event on Tuesday, told the Australian media that local judges had awarded a hit to Chinese shooter Hu Binyuan even though he missed the target.
“One of them clearly he missed,” Mark was quoted as saying by his country’s media. “I don’t think anyone out there thought he hit it. If that had been for a gold medal, I would have been protesting.
“The referees have to be in unison but there was a lot of doubt about a lot of the shots out there.
“I’m glad it wasn’t for a gold medal because that is all that this Games would have been remembered for unfortunately.”
Asked if the judges deliberately ruled in Hu’s favour, Mark said: “I’d hate to think that but you get the feeling out there, when someone clearly misses, all the shooters out there can tell if he missed or hit it.
“Everybody stopped.”
Mark said the judges may have been influenced by the boisterous crowd of 10,000 that cheered the Chinese shooter on.
“The crowd were yelling and calling shots in and out,” he said. “It was like a circus out there. It would have been a brave Chinese judge that would have put his hand up (to signify a miss).”
There was no immediate reaction on Mark’s outburst from Games officials or the International Shooting Federation.
Mark, who returned to competitive shooting at these Games after turning to coaching over the last few years, stressed he was not using either the judging or the crowd noise as an excuse for his fifth place finish.
“The position I finished in is well above the position I am in the world,” said the Australian, whose final tally of 181 was three short of Hu’s 184.
“Unfortunately, the Chinese shooter was in front of me, so I had to wait every time after he shot before the noise died down.
“I am not using this as an excuse, but I don’t have much opportunity to practice in front of a crowd of 10,000.
“But I have learnt a lot today, it proves you can teach an old dog new tricks.”
The double trap event was won by American Walton Eller with a new Games record, despite being the youngest of the six finalists at 26.
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Wow, Chicom judge cheats.
August 13th, 2008 at 3:21 amThat’s news?
Again and another event. Werent the Russians known for doing that.
August 13th, 2008 at 4:29 amI’m not surprised the Chinese guy was missing a few if he was using that thing in the picture up top.
August 13th, 2008 at 7:14 am