Controversy erupts: Winning Silver Medal in Tears, Vietnam Taekwondo Team Fails to Appeal

On the morning of December 10th, the first official day of competition at the 33rd SEA Games, the Vietnamese Taekwondo team could only win a silver medal after losing to Singapore in the mixed doubles poomsae (forms) event.

There had been some organizational issues earlier when the Malaysian team sued the host country Thailand, causing matches in this event to be temporarily suspended. In the quarter-final match, Malaysia claimed they had a higher score, but the referee declared Thailand the winner. After about 30 minutes, the organizers stated that there had been a mistake in the scoring. Ultimately, Thailand won, and they will face Vietnam in the semi-finals.

In the subsequent semi-final match, the Vietnamese pair Nguyen Thi Kim Ha and Nguyen Trong Phuc defeated host Thailand in the standard mixed doubles poomsae event and advanced to the final against Singapore.

Sadly, the Vietnamese taekwondo duo lost and left the arena in tears. Initially, after the match, the two Vietnamese athletes hugged each other in celebration, thinking they had won the gold medal, but the result shocked both of them, along with the coaching staff and the Vietnamese media present at the arena. According to the final results announced by the judges, the two Vietnamese athletes scored 8.50 - 8.38 in technical skills, compared to their opponents' 8.84 - 8.50.

This result did not please the Vietnamese Taekwondo coaching staff, who noticed that the two Singaporean athletes made more mistakes but received higher scores.

Taekwondo team leader Thu Trang and coach Minh Tú have paid the fees and officially filed a complaint with the SEA Games 33 Organizing Committee, pointing out that the Singaporean pair committed 3 fouls in the final match (the female athlete committed 2 fouls, the male athlete committed 1 foul) but the referees ignored them.

Not only Vietnam, but the Philippines team also expressed dissatisfaction with the organizers' decision to declare them the losers in the semi-final match against Singapore, and with the referees failing to provide video footage to justify the result. They also appealed and "hoped for a fairer outcome," said Tolentino, President of the Philippine Taekwondo Federation.

After nearly two hours of deliberation, which brought subsequent competitions to a standstill, the organizing committee finally made its decision: to uphold the original results.

The pair of athletes Nguyen Thi Kim Ha and Nguyen Trong Phuc competed in the standard mixed doubles kata performance event.