Taufik again made evident his displeasure at the host’s line-judges on his way to beating Korea’s Lee Hyun-il, while China joined the protests in fury at a decision during Gao Ling and Huang Sui’s defeat against Ra Kyung-min and Lee Kyung-won in the women’s doubles.

The men’s final appeared likely to have that little bit of extra-spice, perhaps we can call it a kimchi-kick, after Taufik disposed of Shon Seung-mo, his opponent in the controversialng match of the men’s team final, 15-10, 15-7 and Lee accounted for the world champion Hendrawan 15-3, 15-4, to reach the gold medal match.

While the Indonesian world number 14 has vowed never to play in Korea again, Lee was one of the lone voices among the Korean team to voice anger at the Taufik-inspired two-hour standoff the previous Wednesday.

However, any possibility of a monumental struggle evaporated in the first game with Taufik serving at 3-5. The 22-year-old Korean self-destructed, contributing to his own downfall as Taufik took 11 consecutive points. During that run Lee sent service returns wide on two consecutive occasions and found the net with six unforced errors of varying degrees of difficulty.

Handed such an advantage it took little time for the Indonesian to polish off the game, winning 15-7 in less than a quarter of an hour.

With Taufik firing bullets on his smashes and Lee unable to completely shake his frustration the second game headed towards its conclusion, with the former appearing to have plenty in reserve.

However when a disputed line-call levelled the score at 9-9, Taufik again seemed ready to explode at the same perceived injustices that caused his walkout on Wednesday.

This time his protest was met by a rapid and firm response from the umpire and the Singaporean referee “Henry” Ee Boon-kong, and Taufik returned to the court, quickly rounding off the match with a series of smashes.

“The reason why I protested was to try and say ‘please do it right, it’s the final’, but I’m used to unfair decisions,” Taufik explained afterwards. “Until Wednesday (against Shon) I had never lost to a Korean player, so I wanted to be able to prove myself.”

He didn’t have to exert himself too much to do that against a player, who afterwards admitted he had been overcome by nerves in front of his home crowd.

“I need to learn how to relax,” said the frustrated 22-year-old. “My body felt fine, but my strokes were very bad. At first it was OK - I believed I could win - but I couldn’t control my mind.”

However the anger over line-calls was not just restricted to the Indonesians. The Chinese world champions and number three women’s doubles pair Gao Ling and Huang Sui spent ten minutes disputing a decision on their way to an 11-8, 11-7 defeat against the number-two ranked Korean partnership of Ra Kyung-min and Lee Kyung-won.

The dispute came at 3-3 in the second game when, after a typically lengthy rally of more than 40 shots, Ra sunk to her knees convinced that she had erred in her decision to leave a clear from Gao.

It is impossible to say whether Ra was more surprised or Gao more incensed when the shuttle was called out, but the Chinese head coach Li Yongbo was furious as he joined in the heated debate.

“The Korean line-judges are the worst in the world,” he said afterwards using a mandarin word which translates directly into English as ‘low’, but which implies dishonesty.

“It’s difficult for these players to play with circumstances which are so unfair,” he continued. “I think the influence that line-judges have in badminton is too great.”

Datuk Punch Gunalan, the General Secretary of the Asian Badminton Confederation and an IBF vice-president, however, objected to the suggestion that the decisions on the final day of the Asian Games competition had been any worse than those seen elsewhere in international competition.

“I must admit that some of the line calls have been questionable, but a sweeping statement like that is not right,” he insisted. “We have had similar situations in other countries.”

Fortunately the men’s doubles went off without incident as Korea claimed it’s third of the five individual gold medals. However, it was not the dominant former world champions Kim Dong-moon and Ha Tae-kwon on the podium. They were defeated by Halim Haryanto and Tri Kusharjanto - having beaten them 15-3, 15-6 to win gold in the men’s team event - in the quarter-finals 15-7, 8-15, 15-8.

Instead it was the second Korean pair and world number three partnership Lee Dong-soo and Yoo Yong-sun who powered Thailand’s Pramote Teerawiwatana and Tesana Panvisavas 15-11, 15-6.

The previous days’ final proved something of an anticlimax as both the women’s singles and the mixed doubles finals were one-sided affairs.

To call the women’s tie a battle of the top seeds would be a misnomer, as the world champion Gong Ruina succumbed to Zhou Mi 11-1, 11-1 – the manner of her capitulation certainly raised a few eyebrows.

The mixed doubles gold was won almost as comfortably by Kim Dong-moon and Ra Kyung-min of Korea who simply outclassed Thailand’s Khunakorn Sudhisodhi and Saralee Thungthongkam 11-4, 11-0.

RESULTS:
Men's Singles
Women's Singles
Men's Doubles
Women's Doubles
Mixed Doubles

report by Tim Maitland, Busan