“This
disqualification (Despaigne´s) is
something incredible and it is my belief
that the judo refereeing in these Games
is in very bad shape”, said Beltran who
is here as the head trainer of the
Mexican squad.
“From the very fact
that the referees at the table are
telling the main referee what to do
through an electronic device, this
person loses automatically his
independence and the corner’s officials
have no function at all” she complained.
She said that that
changes the whole judo competition, and
said that if this was the way to go in
this sport, they should do like in
wrestling with only one judge who heeds
what the table referees tell him.
“Despaigne´s case is
a clear example of bad work, since he
had a Waza-ari ahead with only 37
seconds to go, and he didn’t bite
anyone, or broke any rule and still was
disqualified by a mistaken call of the
referees”
Meanwhile, the Cuban
judoka was visibly angry with the call.
“I did not need to cheat to win the
combat. I can not imagine who came up
with that idea”
The Cuban coach Justo
Noda said he had not seen anything like
that in his over 40 years of experience
in judo. I went to the referees table
and I demanded the President to show the
video, and he did not”
It was all a matter
of appreciation of the judges, but what
a coincidence, it is always against
Cuba, sentenced Rafael Manso, national
commissioner of the sport.
