A week ago, the French badminton pair Lucas Corvée - Ronan Labar celebrated their qualification for the men's doubles at the Paris Olympics after their performance at the European Championships in Saarbrücken (Germany) which allowed them to finish in the race ahead of the Another French pair composed of brothers Christo and Toma Junior Popov. But today everything is called into question. Lucas Corvée and Ronan Labar are downgraded behind and find themselves behind the Popov brothers due, undoubtedly, to a calculation error by the International Federation. An incomprehensible scenario, revealed by RMC Sports and which we are able to confirm.
“This is shit!” Not for us as a federation because we will have a qualified pair but that is not done for the players, squeaks the DTN Jérôme Careil. I have no preference for either pair. We were not warned of the error of the BWF (international federation), we only looked at the ranking on Tuesday and we realized that Ronan and Lucas find themselves behind the Popov brothers for 29 points. The BWF subsequently removed the breed classification. »
He specifies: “The problem seems to come from a team competition in China which launched the Olympic race a year ago. Our hypothesis is that the BWF made a mistake in over-awarding points to Ronan and Lucas in a match in this competition. The president of the French federation sent a massage to the president of the BWF who responded yesterday asking for a little time. We are waiting for an explanation. »
“Everyone is going to be right somewhere”
What will the players do next? Asked, they were all unreachable this Thursday. “We can interpret this situation in several different ways,” believes Jérôme Careil. The Popovs can say that Ronan and Lucas were boosted for a year by 400 points, that would not be illegitimate. And Ronan and Lucas could say
yes but we made a competition strategy based on a distorted number of points so that distorts our competition strategy
. It's so bullshit that no one reasoning will prevail over another. Everyone is going to be right somewhere. »
The final breed rankings will be published on May 30. Until then, players could be active. “I think that Ronan and Lucas have contacted the BWF Athletes' Commission for explanations and it is not impossible that they could refer the matter to the arbitration court,” said the DTN. For our part, we will wait for the return of the BWF. Our rule at the race was to automatically qualify the pair that finished in the top 8 or the one that beat the most Top 10s. As the two are not in one of these two cases, we will qualify the best pair at the race. »
The fault probably comes from the BWF, could it propose the qualification of the two double tricolors for the Olympics? “I don't see the BWF adding a men's doubles in a table of 16 which includes 4 groups of 4, judge Jérôme Careil. I would lean towards this solution but I am doubtful that it will come to that. It's easier for the BWF to be taken to court and pay damages to those ultimately harmed than to change the entire Games program. » Response no later than May 30.