Yang gets gold, money

SEOUL – A month after he was deprived of the Olympic men’s all-round title because of a judging error in Athens, South Korean gymnast Yang Tae-Young was awarded a gold medal and a cash prize by the Korea Olympic Committee yesterday.

The committee decided to treat Yang as an Olympic champion and give him a substitute gold medal and the same 20,000 dollars prize awarded to other South Korean Olympic champions even though he returned from Athens clutching only a bronze medal. “We are making it clear at home and abroad that the international sports circle should guarantee fair judgement,” read the statement released after the award ceremony.A judging blunder led to American Paul Hamm winning the gold during the Athens all-round event, with the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) later admitting a scoring error had been made.South Korea formally applied to have the result overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.Yang insists he should be promoted to the gold medal position while Hamm should be named the silver medallist.The court, whose decision is final, will hold a hearing on September 27.South Korean sports officials protested that judges gave Yang’s high bar routine a 9.9 start value rather than a full 10.Had Yang been correctly valued and received the same scores, he would have taken gold.FIG later suspended the judges responsible for being in error, but said under their rules a judge’s decision cannot be overturned.The International Olympic Committee has also said it has no intention of awarding Yang a second gold medal as happened in the figure skating in Salt Lake City which was won by the Russian pair.An investigation showed there had been jury-rigging and the IOC awarded another gold to the Canadian pair.- Nampa-AFP”We are making it clear at home and abroad that the international sports circle should guarantee fair judgement,” read the statement released after the award ceremony.A judging blunder led to American Paul Hamm winning the gold during the Athens all-round event, with the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) later admitting a scoring error had been made.South Korea formally applied to have the result overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.Yang insists he should be promoted to the gold medal position while Hamm should be named the silver medallist.The court, whose decision is final, will hold a hearing on September 27.South Korean sports officials protested that judges gave Yang’s high bar routine a 9.9 start value rather than a full 10.Had Yang been correctly valued and received the same scores, he would have taken gold.FIG later suspended the judges responsible for being in error, but said under their rules a judge’s decision cannot be overturned.The International Olympic Committee has also said it has no intention of awarding Yang a second gold medal as happened in the figure skating in Salt Lake City which was won by the Russian pair.An investigation showed there had been jury-rigging and the IOC awarded another gold to the Canadian pair.- Nampa-AFP