London, Aug 2 (IANS): It was finally the end of the road for India's top women's doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa in the 2012 London Olympics after their appeal was shot down by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) here Wednesday.
The Indians had accused the Japanese pair of Mizuki Fujii and Reika Kakiiwa of "wanting to lose" a Olympic Games group match against the Chinese Taipei team. India's appeal of a re-look at the match came after the BWF suspended four female pairs for "not using one's best efforts to win a match".
The suspended pairs are Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang of China; Greysia Polii and Meiliana Jauhari of Indonesia; Jung Kyung Eun and Kim Ha Na of South Korea; and Ha Jung Eun and Kim Min Jung, also of South Korea.
However, they were not from Group B, of which the Jwala and Ashwini were a part of. The Indians finished third in their group.
A disappointed Jwala said that they were not angry but disappointed.
"We are not angry, but disappointed. It was unfortunate. But we gave our best. Fixers should not be allowed to take part in the Olympics," said Jwala.
Ashwini told IANS that they had given their best.
"We have given our best and that is all we could do. Some things are not in our control," she added.
India coach Pullela Gopichand, a former All-England champion, said match-throwing does not stop there.
He claims that once China lost to Denmark in Group D Tuesday, Japan "wanted to be second" in Group B.
The No.4 seeds Fujii and Kakiiwa went down 19-21, 11-21 to the unseeded Cheng Wen Hsing and Chien Yu Chin of Chinese Taipei at the start of the afternoon session, and despite Gutta/Ponnappa winning against the Chinese Taipei pair and Singapore, the Indians failed to qualify.
"In Group B, (Chinese) Taipei had to and wanted to win, but Japan wanted to lose to be second in the group to avoid China," said Gopichand.
"We put in an appeal protest this morning and the BWF has come back saying they didn't find any bias or anything beyond the ordinary in the matches. We've filed an appeal to review that decision."
"Just because it's subtle and the crowd didn't make a noise, the TV didn't make a noise, doesn't mean it didn't happen. In this match only one team wanted to lose."
London Olympics chief organiser Sebastian Coe described the incidents as "depressing", saying "who wants to sit through something like that".
International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams said that such incidents were "not acceptable".
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