South Korean Olympic badminton players have bans reduced
Last updated on .From the section Badminton
South Korea's Olympic badminton coach, who was given a life ban after his players were charged with "not using one's best efforts to win a match", has had his suspension reduced.
Sung Han-kook will now serve a two-year ban, according to Yonhap news agency.
Four women's doubles players have had two-year bans cut to six months.
Jung Kyung-eun, Kim Ha-na, Ha Jung-eun and Kim Min-jung remain ineligible for national and international competition following the London 2012 controversy.
The four pairs, along with four women's doubles players from China and Indonesia, were kicked out of the Games earlier this month for deliberately trying to lose matches.
Fans at Wembley Arena jeered the players amid farcical scenes as the teams served into the net and missed easy shots in an attempt to lose their matches and gain favourable draws in the knockout stages.
Assistant coach Kim Moon-soo also had a lifetime ban cut to two years on Wednesday after an appeal to Korean badminton's ruling body.
Sung, who blamed the Chinese pair for starting the incident, had accepted his penalty and asked for leniency for the players.
