Sport’s world ruling body set to grant beaten Baun’s replay wish
LONDON: Tine Baun is likely to get the computer replay line decisions she called for after her emotional defeat in the quarter-finals of the Olympic women’s singles badminton tournament on Thursday.
The former world number one from Denmark was bitterly disappointed with one crucial line decision during her 21-15, 22-20 loss to Saina Nehwal, the Commonwealth champion from India.
Baun believes Nehwal’s last shot at 20-18 in the second game landed a couple of inches out and that the match should have gone to a decider. But the line judge called it in, causing Baun to toss her racquet away and hold her head in disbelief.
Three rallies later she had lost the match. There was also a close line decision incident involving Olympic champion Lin Dan at 12-5 in the final game of his men’s singles quarter-final with Japan’s Sho Sasaki.
Lin’s attempted kill was called out, annoying the Chinese player, which was possibly one of the triggers for a sequence during which his seven-point lead was cut to one, almost altering the outcome of the match.
“Sometimes at critical moments it can make such a difference,” Baun said.
“There are times when a match can go either way. I really still think that shuttle was out and that we should have gone to a third game.
“So it would be really good to be able to be able to appeal to computer replays as they do in quite a few other sports.”
This is what is likely to happen next year, according to Paisan Rangsikitpho, the vice president of the Badminton World Federation, the sport’s international governing body.
“We have done some research and I think it is likely we will use computer replays on an experimental basis in selected major events around the world in 2013, he said.
“It won’t be HawkEye (a system used for ruling on line-calls in tennis and lbw decisions in cricket), which is not 100 per cent accurate, but there is something else we have been looking at, and which we would like to try, Rangsikitpho adde.
“It’s time we had it, because we get some issues, and the crowds like it (replays). We need it.” — AFP