Taiwan taekwondo athlete Yang Shu-chun is scheduled to visit Seoul on Friday to make her appeal to the World Taekwondo Federation, Taipei Mission in Korea confirmed Wednesday.

Yang, who was disqualified from Asiad for using extra sensors in her socks, will attend the ethics committee meeting of the WTF Saturday to give her testimony.

The WTF, the sport’s governing body, will decide on her penalty after holding the ethics committee meeting. However, the organization declined to reveal what the possible penalties are, saying that the decision will be only disclosed to the athlete.

Taipei’s taekwondo association president Chen Chein-ping and Yang’s coach will join her for the committee meeting. They are flying to Seoul on Friday night and heading back home Saturday, according to the Taipei Mission. 

The 25-year-old fighter was disqualified during her opening under-49kg match against Vietnam’s Vu Thi Hau at the Guangzhou Asian Games last month.

She passed a pre-match inspection, but the extra sensors were discovered right before the match. Although the sensors were taken from her and the fight was started, officials later stopped the match mid-fight and disqualified her after holding a discussion with technical supervisors.

The Asian Taekwondo Union, which was responsible for the games, revealed later that Yang had an extra electronic sensor taped to each of the heels of her socks in what appeared to be an effort to score more points.

Yang, however, denied the accusations and insisted she had no intention of cheating. The athlete’s dismissal at the games ignited a wave of anti-Korean fury in Taiwan. The fans burnt the Korean flag on the streets and boycotted Korean products.

Meanwhile, the Taiwanese government is seeking to take Yang’s case further to an international court. Reports said the island’s sports governing body filed last week an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sports in Switzerland.

But the Sports Affairs Council Ministry of Taiwan announced that they could withdraw the appeal if the WTF issues an acceptable statement at Saturday’s meeting.

By Oh Kyu-wook (596story@heraldcorp.com)