Malaysian athlete alleges bias after martial arts battle
JAKARTA: A Malaysian athlete accused judges of bias and stormed out of a tumultuous match of the Indonesian martial art pencak silat at the Asian Games in Jakarta on Monday.
Mohd Al-jufferi Jamari, the 2016 world champion, withdrew in protest seconds before the end of the final and punched a hole in the wall of the warm-up area, as Indonesia’s Komang Harik Adi Putra bagged gold in the heated contest.
“I’m not mad at my opponent nor the supporters, but I’m mad because the jury didn’t give the point fairly,” said 26-year-old Al-jufferi, who dominated the early part of the men’s 65-70kg final but 23-year-old Komang came back strongly.
Komang eventually clinched the match 4-1 and Al-jufferi’s coach was left trying to calm down the Malaysian, who pulled out two seconds before the finish.
Harry Warganegara, of Inasgoc, the Games organising committee, told AFP Al-jufferi was unlikely to be sanctioned.
“We think it was very unfortunate though we try to understand (what he was going through),” he said. “But I don’t think there will be any sanctions.”
Nazif Najib, secretary general of Malaysia’s National Olympic Committee (NOC), said he was waiting for the report from Inasgoc but agreed it was unlikely he would be punished.
UAE GIRL IN SPOTLIGHT
JAKARTA: For young Ashwaq Al Khoori, it turned to be a repeat of the climax of famous Bollywood film ‘Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge’, when despite being unconvinced Baldev Singh, allowed his daughter Simran to go with Raj Malhotra in the last minute to live her life as per her desire.
In 1995, Ashwaq was not even born, and a similar act happened to her after 23 years. Her family wasn’t ready to allow her to do refereeing at the Asian Games as they had their own apprehensions. But she managed to convince her family, and has become the first-ever UAE female to do refereeing in mixed-martial art sport ju-jitsu, which made its debut at the Games. Undoubtedly, Ashwaq Al Khoori is another changing face of United Arab Emirates in sports. She remained a centre of attraction during the mixed-martial art sport here as everybody was surprised to see an Emirati girl as a referee for the first time.
Certainly, it seems to be a huge change in UAE in terms of sports since they started allowing their women sportspersons to compete against the world at the 2012 London Olympics, and has been benefitting girls like Ashwaq. She stood like a pro and was perfect in discharging her duties here.
“I haven’t seen the film but heard about this a lot. Somehow it matches with my life where my family allowed to me to do whatever I wanted to do in sport,” said Ashwaq.