Gail Emms: cancel round-robin groups in Olympics

Olympic Torch in Central Milton Keyens with Gail Emms ( Blonde hari first female runner)

Published on 06/08/2012 17:00

Former Great Britain badminton queen Gail Emms has called for round-robin games to be eradicated at Olympics after eight women were disqualified for trying to lose to get a better draw.

On what should happen, the silver medallist at Athens in 2004 and former Dame Alice Harpur School pupil said: “No more group stages for a start.

“I’ve had volunteers really, really upset and emotional — they were crying because they couldn’t believe this was going on at the Olympic Games.

“It was so embarrassing.

“There were 6,000 people inside Wembley Arena who had paid to watch top-level, elite, world-class badminton.

“What happened was just truly disgraceful.

“This is the Olympic Games — it is not in the Olympic spirit.”

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Gail Emms: cancel round-robin groups in Olympics

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