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Greysia, Meiliana get PON ban for Olympic antics

The Indonesian Badminton Association (PBSI) slapped Greysia Polii and Meiliana Jauhari with a four-month ban on Wednesday, scuttling hopes of the women’s doubles pair to compete at this month’s National Games (PON)

Mustaqim Adamrah (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Thu, September 6, 2012

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Greysia, Meiliana get PON ban for Olympic antics

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he Indonesian Badminton Association (PBSI) slapped Greysia Polii and Meiliana Jauhari with a four-month ban on Wednesday, scuttling hopes of the women’s doubles pair to compete at this month’s National Games (PON).

PBSI secretary-general Yacob Rusdianto said that the ban would run from July 31 to Dec. 3. The players were sanctioned for unsportsmanlike conduct at the London Olympics in August.

“They’re not allowed to play in any official tournaments during the period, not at home — the PON, for example — or abroad,” Yacob told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

“Their coach Paulus Firman is also banned from training them during the same period.”

Although Paulus and Greysia did not respond to several text messages and phone calls for comment, Meiliana said that she accepted the decision and hoped not to let the same incident reoccur.

“We will now focus on our training, so that we can perform well when we return to fight,” Meiliana said as quoted by the association’s website.

Yacob said had there not been such a “humiliating” incident and had the shuttlers not been sanctioned, both would have competed at the Japan Open and the Chinese Open as scheduled.

The PON games will run from Wednesday until Sept. 20 in Riau.

Meanwhile, the 2012 Yonex Japan Open is scheduled for Sept. 18 to 23 in Tokyo, while the 2012 Li Ning China Open is set to proceed from Nov. 13 to 18 in Shanghai.

The Indonesian pair, currently ranked World No. 14, however, will still have a chance to compete in the Badminton World Federation Superseries Finals scheduled for Dec. 12 to 16 in Shenzhen, China.

Greysia and Meiliana, along with South Korean pairs Ha Jung-eun and Kim Min-jung and Jung Kyung-eun and Kim Ha-na and Chinese pair Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang, were issued a black cards by referees during their matches on July 31 for not making their best efforts to win a match.

The Badminton World Federation (BWF) disqualified the eight players the next day, the biggest black eye for badminton since the sport was first included in the Olympics in 1992 in Barcelona.

Critics blamed the newly introduced round-robin system of competition in the Olympics for the athletes’ unsportsmanlike behavior.

The four South Korean players were initially given two-year bans by that nation’s badminton federation, which was eventually cut to six months, while their coach, Sung Han-kook, has had his lifetime suspension cut to two years, Reuters previously reported.

Yu Yang from China, however, announced her retirement from badminton following fallout from the scandal.

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