Have you seen a single clear-cut image that they handed off within the rules? If it isn't possible to identify from the footage either way what happened, no one can say that they were robbed. Officials take decisions, they don't submit their findings to the general public to certify them as being correct.
So much for any pretence at objectivity from you. Anyone who turns the rules of the game on it's head clearly has an agenda he wished to pursue. Just FYI, no rules ever stated athletes are guilty until proven innocent of breaking the rules. Officials can only rule that an athlete has broken the rules when there is clear evidence to support it. In the absence of clear evidence, the athlete should be given the benefit of the doubt.
Your absurd claim about officials not needing to justify themselves to the public is also nonsensical. This is not some private deal between companies or countries. It's a sporting event. Officials have to justify their decisions, especially in cases like this where they had plenty of time to think about it and study all available information to come to an informed decision. In addition, the decision is based on a very clear-cut principle, and it should be very simply to demonstrate that there was an illegal hand-over.
Did the officials confirm that was the case, or is that the statement of the Chinese coaches?
Why should that matter? Is the word of the Chinese national coach not good enough for you?
In any event, I recall that the head of UK cycling equally pleaded with the officials after the British women won their semi-final, but his complaints fell on deaf ears as well. I should stress the deaf ears bit, because I recall the BBC commentators saying that it looked bad by the expressions of the officials when the coach was trying to argue it with them.
Did the officials point-blank refuse to look at the replays? There is a massive difference in rejecting an appeal and not hearing it at all you know.
In addition, you are confusing the point. The British pair clearly had an illegal hand over as was demonstrated beyond all possible doubt by videos and pictures. I cannot think of any valid excuse the British coach might have raised, and the fact that he did not bother to even make public what he was protesting to the officials about should be good evidence to show just how weak his case was.
For the Chinese pair, there have thus far not been any conclusive evidence shown, which is unexpected all by itself, and if the decision was made based on the very blurry and unclear video and images shown, it was a bad call as there was simply no way to tell for sure if they did hand over illegally, and in such circumstances, the benefit of the doubt should go with the athletes instead of twisting it into 'guilty until proven innocent' as you have.
The fact that the Chinese national coach was incensed enough to publicly voice his frustration should also be an indication of just how flimsy the case was to relegate the Chinese pair.
As I said earlier, the home team fell foul of these rules, not just the Chinese team. The British change-over was so close that only the judges could have seen it, and I was not aware of any other country lodging a protest with the judges. If they were so biased that they would disqualify the Chinese for something they didn't do, why on earth did they not favour the home tean amd just not pretend they hadn't seen it? Would anyone else have noticed? It's not like they were equipped with time machines and knew that they might have the opportunity to disqualify the Chinese in the final.
Well you clearly have no idea what you are talking about and is just arguing because you have an agenda as opposed to voicing an informed opinion.
Please go watch the clips I posted earlier. If you had known much about the basics of the race or seen the match live or any of the clips up online since, you would realise that the cyclists were traveling so fast not even the judges would have been able to see anything. It is no humanly possible to tell unless there is a very large foul.
The judges rely on video playback after the fact to determine if there had been an illegal hand off, and as such, it should have been extremely straight forward to tell one way or the other. When you watch the slow-mo replays, there is absolutely no doubt that the British pair did hand off illegally. That is simply not the case for the Chinese pair.
I doubt the decision to relegate them was so giant conspiracy, but it was a highly questionable call to being with, which was compounded by the way the officials flat out refused to even look at the evidence the Chinese coach was asking them to review.
Since it's all slow-mo replays, it should be very easy to tell one way or the other, and the Chinese coach would not have made such a big deal so publicly if he had no case.
