A coach from Kosovo hit his eight-year-old daughter after losing at the European Championship
The final of the European Children's Taekwondo Championship, which took place from November 7 to 10 in the Albanian capital Tirana, ended in scandal. The coach of an eight-year-old athlete from Kosovo slapped her after her defeat by a representative of Serbia.
Serbian Nina Slavic defeated her opponent with a score of 4:3. After the defeat, Kosovar taekwondo athlete Valina Fetu burst into tears and wandered towards her coach, who is also the girl's father, Valmir. The angry man roughly pulled her by the bars of her helmet, then grabbed her kimono by the collar and slapped her - the judges who were nearby reprimanded the man with words.
Such behavior was quickly punished. According to the press service of the European Taekwondo Union, the coach received a six-month disqualification - during this period he cannot attend national and international tournaments.
"The Supervisory Board has suspended a coach for six months after physically assaulting his athlete after a fight. The incident was recorded on camera. The coach behaved in a way that is not acceptable in our sport. The coach later apologized and was banned from attending national and international competitions for six months," the European Taekwondo Union said in a statement.
How the father explained what happened
Valmir explained his behavior by saying that he wanted to cheer up the girl.
"She is my daughter and no one loves her more than I do. At that moment, when the girl was disoriented and angry that she lost to the Serbian competitor, she lay on the floor, unable to accept the defeat.
I just wanted to calm her down and let her know that despite the loss, she was in second place and she would have other opportunities. She took second place, despite the fact that the competitors at the tournament were much stronger. She is eight years old and she started crying. The slap was supposed to calm her down. It was a small shake-up for my daughter,” the specialist said.
