FOUR Chinese badminton players have been punished for breaking anti-corruption rules by failing to try their best in a doubles match, said the sport’s governing body today.

The Badminton World Federation said He Ji Ting, Tan Qiang, Li Jun Hui and Liu Yu Chen have been hit with three-month bans, which have been suspended for two years.

If there are repeat offences within two years, the bans will take effect.

The rule-breaking took place at the Fuzhou China Open in 2018, when He and Tan faced Li and Liu in the quarter-finals of the men’s doubles.

Another player watching the game raised the alarm with officials due to suspicions that the doubles pairs were not making their best efforts to win the match.

During an interval, officials urged the players to put in more effort. Their performances then improved significantly, and He and Tan went on to defeat their higher-ranked rivals.

Badminton authorities later lodged a complaint and, after a lengthy probe, a panel found that the players had broken rules aimed at combating corruption by failing to use their best efforts to win a match.

Two other charges, including that they sought to fix the outcome of the match, were dismissed due to a lack of evidence.

The players have denied all the charges. – AFP, March 25, 2022.