Vietnamese Taekwondo team misses out on gold medal, sues referees for unfair scoring.

VHO - At noon on December 10th, the Vietnamese Taekwondo team competed in their first event, the mixed doubles standard poomsae (forms) at the 33rd SEA Games. The pair competing in this event were martial artists Nguyen Trong Phuc and Nguyen Thi Kim Ha.

Trong Phuc and Kim Ha are both veteran Taekwondo fighters of Vietnam. Kim Ha has participated in the SEA Games many times, while this is Trong Phuc's second SEA Games.

Trong Phuc/Kim Ha defeated two home athletes in the semi-finals.

Because of their high ranking in the world Taekwondo rankings, Trong Phuc/Kim Ha did not have to compete in the qualifying rounds and went straight to the semi-finals against their Thai opponents.

Despite immense pressure from their home opponents, the Vietnamese martial artists performed excellently, drawing with the home team with a total score of 86.80 after two performances.

However, the referee judged that the Vietnamese team had performed better and therefore won.

The two Vietnamese athletes performed well in the final.

In the other semi-final match, the two Singaporean athletes defeated the Philippines to advance to the final against Trong Phuc/Kim Ha.

At the end of the final round, the two Vietnamese athletes achieved technical scores of (8.50 - 8.38), compared to their opponents' scores of 8.84 - 8.50, thus securing second place.

The leader of the Vietnamese Taekwondo team filed a complaint with the refereeing committee.

However, the Vietnamese Taekwondo team's leadership later complained to the referees about Singapore's score. The Vietnamese side argued that the referees overlooked three fouls committed by the Singaporean pair – two by the female athlete and one by the male athlete – which the referees ignored.

The Vietnamese Taekwondo coaching staff believes the referee overlooked three fouls committed by the Singaporean pair.

Subsequently, the Taekwondo team leader officially filed a complaint with the organizing committee, awaiting a resolution. Furthermore, the Philippine team also officially sued the referee for inaccurate scoring in their semi-final loss to Singapore.

Following the mixed doubles standard event featuring Kim Ha/Trong Phuc, Vietnamese Taekwondo will also compete in the men's team standard event (Nguyen Thien Phung/Nguyen Trong Phuc/Pham Quoc Viet), women's team standard event (Nguyen Thi Kim Ha/Le Tran Kim Uyen/Le Ngoc Han), and creative team event (Nguyen Xuan Thanh/Tram Dang Khoa/Tran Ho Duy/Le Tran Kim Uyen/Nguyen Phan Khanh Han/Nguyen Thi Y Binh).

Source: https://baovanhoa.vn/the-thao/taekwondo-viet-nam-vuot-hcv-kien-trong-tai-vi-cham-diem-khong-cong-bang-187181.html