WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: KOREAN MIXED PAIRS DRAW FIRE FOR POOR PLAY

**This NEW SHUTTLENWS report is presented by YANG YANG BADMINTON PRODUCTS and their Southern U.S.A. agents, SPORTSNET INTERNATIONAL (Email:jumpsmash@aol.com /Tel:713-771-8905/Fax:713-771-4446)**

May 28, 1997 (NEW SHUTTLENWS) - Two Korean mixed doubles pairs, Ha Tae Kwon and Kim Shin Young and Kim Dong Moon and Ra Kyung Min, were roundly criticized today for playing a very uncompetitive match at the world badminton championships in Glasgow, Scotland.

Ha and Kim Shin Young, seeded eight, lost to their compatriots Kim Dong Moon and Ra Kyung Min, 1-15 and 1-15 in a second-round match that lasted all of eight minutes and that was highlighted more by quick points and smiles than by competitive play.

Kim and Ra are unseeded at the world championships but Kim is an Olympic Games gold medalist in mixed doubles while Ra is an Olympic Games silver medal winner. Kim and Ra had to compete in the qualifying rounds because this is the first tournament that they have played in as a pair.

Usually, top players or pairs from the same country are not matched up against each other in the early rounds, but because Kim Dong Moon and Ra came into the main competition from the qualifying rounds, the matchup between the two Korean pairs occurred.

Observers at the match said that it seemed to them that Ha and Kim Shin Young were throwing the match to Kim Dong Moon and Ra Kyung Min.

Stan Hales of the U.S.A., the deputy referee assigned to the group of courts where the match was played, indicated that he was going to file a report to the badminton federation about the way the match was played by the two Korean pairs. According to Hales, badminton has a rule against behaviour that puts the sport into disrepute and the Koreans may have gone against this regulation.

(migrossman)