It’s the story of a blunder, of a calculation error that could change everything. At the end of the European Championships which took place last week in Saarbrück, Germany, the cause was heard. Without a major tournament between now and April 30, the date of the end of Olympic qualification, the place in the Olympic men’s doubles in the French team went to the Labar/Corvée duo.
Except that the new ranking published this week places the brothers Toma Junior and Christo Popov with… 29 points ahead at the race to Paris (out of a total of 36,360!) compared to the Labar-Corvée duo. In other words, according to the international federation, the place for Paris-2024 goes to the two Fosséens. In their clan, we prefer to procrastinate and wait for formalization before speaking out. On the side of Ronan Labar and his accomplice, accounts were demanded from the BWF (the international federation), via the athletes’ commission.
400 points awarded too many?
Why this sudden change? As stated RMC Sport, the error comes from the mixed world championship, the Surdiman Cup, a competition which took place in May… 2023 in China. In any case, these are the calculations which were redone by the French federation of posterityonce the weekly ranking of the BWF has been published. “We have, at Insep, a team which manages the data and we think, because we have not had any official communication, that the error would come from this competition“, evokes the DTN Jérôme Careil. An error which was kept until the end of the European Championships with this recalculation of the international federation when no more competitions will be played. “For both pairs, it’s a roller coaster. We asked the international federation for explanations. They asked us for time to respond“, adds the leader of the French federation.
In fact, 4,300 points were awarded at the end of the Surdiman Cup to the Labar-Corvée pair, 400 points too many according to the world ranking recalculated yesterday by the BWF. A margin synonymous with big blows to the head on Aixois Ronan Labar and his friend from Issy-les-Moulineaux, Lucas Corvée who were present this summer in the Adidas Arena in Paris.
“Do not favor one pair over another”
But if these points were indeed wrongly awarded, they change everything for Olympic qualification. “For us, there is no question of favoring one pair over another. We wanted a French pair to be present at the Games, this will be the case for the first time in history. But it’s a surreal situation to change the world ranking, at the end of the race, without warning anyone!“
In any case, it will be impossible to send the two pairs to the Games to resolve this dispute, as a competition table cannot be extended as desired… unless the international federation wishes to do so. “But we would have to change the entire competition system, for the moment we have four groups of four. If a pair is drafted, it would necessarily impact a pair from another country. We are in an unprecedented situation…“, regrets the DTN of the French federation.
What will be the verdict on this incredible story? Nobody knows yet. The federation could have had the final choice and favored a weaker pair in the world rankings. But no criteria established upstream were respected since it was necessary to beat a duo present in the world Top10. What neither the brothers nor the Labar-Corvée duo managed to do during this Olympic qualification.
An official communication from the BWF is now particularly awaited in the small world of French badminton. It could take place by April 30. The federation is in any case required to propose a list to the Olympic committee on May 14. An official communication with the names of the qualifiers will take place the next day, May 15.
2024-04-18 09:32:23
#Badminton #Popov #brothers #Olympic #doubles #calculation #error
