China's top diving official denies match-fixing allegations at National Games

By Xinhua writer Liu Baosen, Zhou Xin

Zhou Jihong, head of the Chinese national diving team, refuted the rumour of fixing the diving competitions at the 11th Chinese National Games on Thursday.

Zhou, who led Chins to seven out of eight gold medals at last year's Beijing Olympic Games, said that almost all the gold medalists at the National Games were world or Olympic champions and no one could manipulate referees.

Reports said earlier that matches in the diving competitions, which concluded on Monday, were fixed by Zhou.

One of the judges, alias Ma Ming, former head coach of Hunan provincial team, accused Zhou, also the senior diving judge, of manipulating the referees and of her dictatorship to decide the gold medals.

Ma said that all the 12 gold medals were fixed even before the competitions had kicked off.

Ma precisely forecast the gold medalists at men's 3m springboard, women's 10m synchronized platform, women's 3m springboard synchro and men's 10m platform when she quit the referee squad because she could not turn a blind eye to such "under-the-table deals", the reports said.

Ma could not be reached after she had left the games.

Zhou, also China's first Olympic diving champion in the 1984 Los Angeles Games, said, "It is normal for anyone to make precise predictions based on the analysis of the strength and previous performances of the divers."

Zhou pointed out that the Chinese Swimming Association (CSA) had issued a special regulation for the management of referees at the diving events to ensure fair play. Any referee who committed misconduct would get warned for the first time and dismissed for twice.

"One referee was disqualified for unfair marking," said Zhou, adding that it was not easy to be a referee at the events for they were always under great pressure.

Zhou said, all the 40 referees were chosen at random 30 minutes before the events started. There were sometimes nine or five referees for the individual events and 11 referees for the synchro events, more than the international rules, which requires seven for the individual and nine for the synchronized.

In some events, such as men's 3m springboard and 10m platform, the referees in power were always facing the risks of being replaced by substitutes if any unfair conducts were detected.

Match-fixing is not something new in China. The 10th National Games four years ago in Nanjing were plagued with match-fixing rumors in judo, rhythmic gymnastics and taekwondo.

China has dominated diving in the past decades, winning 186 titles in the World Cup, the World Championships and the Olympic Games since they made their international debut in 1981.

Olympic champions, including Guo Jingjing, Wu Minxia, Chen Ruolin, Wang Feng, Qin Kai, Lin Yue and He Chong, all pocketed goldmedals at the National Games. World champion He Zi snatched the women's 1m springboard title.

The Games is to open officially here on October 16 with some events, including speed skating, fencing, table tennis, gymnastics and diving were held beforehand to give way to some international events.

Source: Xinhua