Badminton: Olympic gold medalist Taufik quits China Open
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-11-08 01:07

Athens Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia quit the 250,000-dollar China Open badminton championships which started here on Tuesday.

Taufik, who also claimed the title at this year's world championships, did not appear at this afternoon's first round match and was then automatically out of the tournament.

A coach from the Indonesian team said that Taufik's right foot hurt. But an organizer said that although Taufik, the fourth seed, had registered for competing in the China Open, he did not arrive in Guangzhou.

Last week at the Hong Kong Open, Taufik was unceremoniously bundled out of the mens singles in the third round by Malaysian Wong Choong-hann.

In today's other matches, third-seeded Bao Chunlai from China cruised through, beating Persson Joachim of Denmark 15-2, 15-1, while world No.1 Lin Dan from China, second-seeded Jonassen of Denmark enjoyed byes.

More than 237 atheltes from 13 countries and regions participated in the tournament here.