"Malaysia was robbed of a gold medal" — that was the reaction of Malaysian National Silat Federation (PESAKA) secretary-general Megat Zulkarnain Omardin after a controversial Putra Class E final at the 2018 Asian Games on Monday.
In the final, national silat champion Al Jufferi Jamari lost to Indonesian exponent Komang Harik Adi Putra after leaving the ring in protest of biased decisions by the fight's panel of judges.
Megat Zulkarnain told Malaysian and local media that he placed the defeat of the 2017 KL SEA Games gold medalist squarely on several panel members.
"I have expected dirty play would happen and yesterday I ordered the coach to protest if the judges were from South Korea and Laos, but we overlooked it, which resulted in seeing them seated as judges today.
"We can see the attacks by Al Jufferi in front of them were not awarded points while his opponent [Komang] was given points. In the end, we saw Al Jufferi being robbed of the gold medal," he said.
He was upset to see the situation as the fight progressed and later ordered Al Jufferi to leave the ring as a sign of protest.
"I am taking full responsibility for asking Al Jufferi to walk out of the ring as I believe he would not be favoured for a win," he added.
Megat stressed that he would look into the matter with all other competing countries before deciding on taking any action.
In the final, Al Jufferi began slowly when he trailed 1-4 in the first round but bounced back to lead 3-2 at the end of the second round.
However, the controversy occured when Al Jufferi's strikes and kicks were not counted, while points were awarded to the host's exponent.
In the final, national silat champion Al Jufferi Jamari lost to Indonesian exponent Komang Harik Adi Putra after leaving the ring in protest of biased decisions by the fight's panel of judges.
Megat Zulkarnain told Malaysian and local media that he placed the defeat of the 2017 KL SEA Games gold medalist squarely on several panel members.
"I have expected dirty play would happen and yesterday I ordered the coach to protest if the judges were from South Korea and Laos, but we overlooked it, which resulted in seeing them seated as judges today.
"We can see the attacks by Al Jufferi in front of them were not awarded points while his opponent [Komang] was given points. In the end, we saw Al Jufferi being robbed of the gold medal," he said.
He was upset to see the situation as the fight progressed and later ordered Al Jufferi to leave the ring as a sign of protest.
"I am taking full responsibility for asking Al Jufferi to walk out of the ring as I believe he would not be favoured for a win," he added.
Megat stressed that he would look into the matter with all other competing countries before deciding on taking any action.
In the final, Al Jufferi began slowly when he trailed 1-4 in the first round but bounced back to lead 3-2 at the end of the second round.
However, the controversy occured when Al Jufferi's strikes and kicks were not counted, while points were awarded to the host's exponent.
