Coach and referee punished over cheating accusation at youth karate competition

After collecting reports from relevant parties regarding the controversy in the final of the 11-12 age group at the 2024 HCMC Youth Karate Championship on Aug. 27, the HCMC Department of Culture and Sports banned Tan Binh District karate head coach Nguyen Thi Mong Tam from participating in tournaments organized by the department for being dishonest when she said that athlete Nguyen Thanh Mai was injured and had to give up the final, although in fact she was not.

The department also asked the Tan Binh District Karate Center, Tam's managing unit, to clarify the motive behind her statement that "even if she competed she'd lose anyway".

The referees who officiated the final were also banned from officiating until the end of 2024. Previously, in a report sent to the department, the main referee Trinh Duong Khanh Thanh admitted that he did not follow the regulations. Normally, when a referee receives information about an athlete withdrawing due to injury, they must report and request the medical department to check for the injury or get an injury confirmation from the hospital. However, the referee ignored the regulations as he skipped this step and declared the withdrawal.

On Aug. 19, Nguyen Manh Duong, Mai's father, posted a video on Facebook, denouncing the karate coaches of Tan Binh District for giving up the medal to the athlete of Binh Thanh District, and the referees who judged unfairly and forced his daughter to lose in the final of the 11-12 age group.

According to Duong, his daughter participated in two events: Kihon and Kumite. After winning the Kihon gold medal with her teammates, Mai competed in the Kumite event. She quickly won both matches to enter the finals.

Then the referee team suddenly announced that Mai was injured, so the athlete from Binh Thanh District was awarded the gold medal. When Duong went to the referee team to ask for the reason, the head coach of the Tan Binh District karate team, Nguyen Thi Mong Tam told him: "Binh Thanh District team have few medals and they asked for more while we (Tan Binh District) have won many, so we should give one to them."

Duong complained to the coach that the family had spent time, effort and money on their daughter's training, and adults shouldn't force a child to cheat like that.

In response to Duong's reaction, the match still took place.

"But the referees' scoring was unbelievable," Duong said, stressing that the referee team didn’t maintain a fair attitude as they were supposed to.

In the video of the match, Duong analyzed every legal attack of his daughter but no points were scored and only the opponent got the points. The final result was a 3-11 loss to Mai.

Coach Tam affirmed with the department that she did not make the statement as Duong accused. Tam was worried about Mai’s injury and her level because this young athlete only specialized in Kihon (performance) and was not strong in Kumite (combat).

The referees also affirmed that they conducted the match according to the rules.

"The match took place openly, transparently with neutrality," the referees said.

A day before the department's conclusion, the HCMC Karate Federation also stated that the match result was valid, not as Duong had alleged.

"The match result was 3 points for the blue belt athlete (Mai) and 11 points for the red belt athlete, a difference of 8 points. The red belt athlete won according to the competition rules," the statement said.

HCMC's sports department said on Thursday that it found no signs of cheating at the tournament, but Mai's coaches have made statements that were against sport and education spirits, while the referees were not professional in their conduct.