JAKARTA - Sad news enveloped the badminton world. Young badminton player from China, Zhang Zhi Jie, while competing in the 2024 Badminton Asian Junior Championship (BAJC) in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, Sunday, June 30, 2024.
Zhang Zhi Jie suddenly fell while preparing to receive service from his opponent, Kazuma Kabano (Japan). At that time, the match was tied 11-11.
The Chinese badminton player fell face down and had a seizure. The medical team was only able to enter the field to provide assistance on a referee order about 40 seconds after Zhi Jie fell.
According to Badminton Asia and PBSI's statement, Zhi Jie fainted in the field and was rushed to RSPAU dr. S. Hardjolukito. He was declared dead at 23.20 WIB.
The provision of first aid is in the public spotlight of badminton. The medical team was judged to have been on the field for too long and made Zhi Jie receive treatment late.
Videos related to the slow medical treatment went viral on social media and received a lot of responses from netizens.
PBSI's Head of Public Relations and Media, Broto Happy, explained that the length of time the medical team handled Zhi Jie was not a mistake because it was in accordance with BWF's standard operational procedure (SOP).
As is known, the referee has the full right to give permission to the medical team to enter the field. If you have not received instructions from the referee, the medical team is automatically not allowed to take action.
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"The match management is all commanded by a referee. If you look at the video, there is no referee or have not decided to call the medical team in the field. That's what I can tell you. If that's the case, maybe you can ask the referee," said Broto Happy.
When referring to the BWF SOP, there are indeed two types of main referees in international badminton tournaments, namely umpire and referee.
Umpire is a field referee, while the referee is a tournament referee.
Umpire is only responsible for one game that he leads. This means that the umpire is more technical-related in the field than recording points.
While the referee has a bigger and more complex task. Referee has a responsibility for the entire tournament to run according to badminton law based on BWF regulations.
This means that this referee heads the Umpires on duty on the field. Umpire will report the match to the referee.
Not only that, Referee even has a burden on ensuring athletes get facilities according to standards, security, and regulate transportation.
As the head, it turned out that it was the referee who held the right to the medical team's permission to take action.
Therefore, big questions arise about whether the referee at the 2024 Badminton Asian Junior Championship should be responsible for the incident that befell Zhi Jie.
PBSI also answered diplomatically about the question. As the host, his party will coordinate with Badminton Asia (Asian Badminton Confederation) and BWF regarding SOPs in granting permission from the medical team.
"Maybe we can send a letter to BWF about the rules regarding the medical team being able to enter after a call from the referee in the future must be even faster."
"If an emergency incident occurs, the rule can be defeated. Everything is for the safety of the athletes and the kindness of all players."
"So, this (incident) is input for BWF. Maybe there are different views about going to the field. In essence, we work according to the SOP."
"That is our input. Of course we communicate with the referee. In the future, our task together should not be to happen things that are not desirable. Thank you for the input, hopefully in the future it will be safe and healthy," said Broto Happy again.
Zhang Zhi Jie was born in January 2007 in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province. He started his journey in the badminton world in the last year of kindergarten. His talent rapidly developed.
In the third grade of elementary school, he was recruited into the Zhejiang Province team.
He won the men's singles champion and men's team champion in the 2023 National Youth Badminton Championships category. In 2023, he got a place in China's national youth team.
He started his journey this year by winning a men's singles title at Dutch Junior International.
Condolences flowed shortly after Zhi Jie's departure.
"The badminton world is losing talented players," Badminton Asia said in a statement.
"I extend my deepest condolences to Zhang's family during this devastating time. The world has lost its extraordinary talent today," wrote India's star, PV Sindhu, Olympic silver and bronze medalist, on his personal X account.
"Zhang Zhijie likes badminton and is an extraordinary athlete in the national youth badminton team," read an official statement from the China Badminton Association (CBA).
Meanwhile, after Zhang Zhi Jie's departure, all participants of the 2024 Badminton Asia Junior Championship had a moment of silence for one minute.
During the remainder match, the Chinese team wore black armbands in honor of Zhang Zhi Jie. China came out as the men's team champion after beating South Korea 3-1 in the final on July 2, 2024.
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