Iran withdraws from Paralympic wheelchair basketball quarterfinals

Source: Xinhua | 09-13-2008 11:44

BEIJING, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Iran withdrew from the quarterfinal match against the United States at the men's wheelchair basketball tournament of the Beijing Paralympic Games here on Saturday.

Iran thus lost the match by forfeit, as it was announced by the organizers.

The match was originally scheduled at 11:15am and was rescheduled to 9:00am on Saturday. But Iran would not accept the change and decided to walk out of the match.

The International Wheelchair Basketball Federation (IWBF) and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) said in a statement that "Iranian men's team have withdrawn from the tournament due to dissatisfaction with the draw proposed for the cross-over round and subsequent schedule."

"Consequently, the game USA vs Iran will be decided by IWBF Rulebook Rule 4, Article 20, "Game lost by Forfeit." The USA will be awarded the win by the score of 20-0 in accordance with the applicable rule and will progress to the semi-finals.

"The IWBF regrets this decision taken by Iran and the disruption caused to the tournament. Despite this occurrence, the IWBF is certain that the remaining teams will continue to participate to their best and an outstanding gold medal game will be hosted on September 16," the statement said.

Editor:Xiong Qu