China National Games open under shadow of judging scandal

(Attn eds: profanity in paras seven, eight)

BEIJING, Oct 16 (Reuters) - President Hu Jintao officially opened the 11th China National Games in Jinan on Friday but the event was already embroiled in a judging scandal that prompted a foul-mouthed outburst from a deputy sports minister.

The quadrennial inter-provincial event claims to be the largest multi-sport Games in the world, attracting 15,133 athletes from 46 teams competing in 362 events in 33 sports.

Friday's massive opening ceremony was staged in the 60,000-seater Jinan Olympic Centre in Shandong Province with International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge among the audience.

Former champion hurdler Liu Xiang will run for Shanghai, while Olympic champion diver Guo Jingjing has already won her Hebei province a gold medal, one of the 104 handed out before the main Oct 16-28 session.

Allegations of result-rigging in the diving competition, however, have taken the spotlight from Guo after one of the judges accused another of manipulating the panel to decide the winners before competition.

Deputy sports minister Xiao Tian lost his temper on Thursday when denying the accusation and addressing the fact that a pair of divers with obviously smaller splash did not win.

"You can't say it had been fucking fixed, it's fucking fake, just because you lost," Xiao told a news conference on Thursday, which was widely reported by local media.

"How can you only judge a routine by the size of splash? Even a fucking amateur can make very little splash if only turns over once. Can you give him gold medal?" he added.

Xiao said investigation by the General Administration of Sports (GAS) had shown the accusation was groundless.

"GAS will definitely not tolerate any match fixing. If it happens, we will even take legal action," said Xiao. "But it is not true."

The games were first held in 1959 in Beijing when Communist China was isolated from most of the rest of the sporting world, and it remains the major way the government appraises the work of provincial sports authorities.

In China's gold-obsessed state sports system, winning the national title can be as same important as, if not more important, than winning an Olympic gold to the local officials.

With the stakes so high, allegations of cheating and other problems are not new.

In 2005, Sun Yingjie, a former world championship bronze medalist, tested positive after finishing second in the 10,000m -- a day after winning the Beijing Marathon.

Footballer Zhou Haibin was also claimed by his native Liaoning Province to have faked his age after he transferred to represent rivals Shandong.

This year, an under-20 player at a July soccer qualifier assaulted the referee after chasing him across the pitch. He was later banned for life.

"All teams at the National Games have to be aware that sportsmanship and discipline, as well as anti-doping, are more important than winning gold medal," sports minister Liu Peng said on Friday.

(Reporting by Liu Zhen and Emma Graham-Harrison; Editing by Brian Homewood and Miles Evans)

To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)