"I Missed It": Absurd Error by Incheon City Sports Council Leaves Athletes Unable to Compete in National Games... They Only Found Out Six Days Later

*This content was translated by AI.

An absurd incident occurred where athletes who had been preparing for the National Games were unable to compete due to an administrative error by a staff member of the Incheon City Sports Council.

According to the Incheon City Sports Council on the 27th, the eligibility of female industrial soft tennis team players selected as representatives of the city for the 107th National Games, scheduled to be held in Jeju this October, was revoked.

In the soft tennis event, each team must register six players with the Korean Sports Council to participate not only in team competitions but also in individual singles and doubles events.

The problem arose during the player substitution process.

A staff member of the Incheon City Sports Council, who received a request from the soft tennis coach to change the competing players, deleted one of the six previously registered players from the computer system.

Although new players needed to be registered afterward, the staff failed to input the changes again by the registration deadline set by the Korean Sports Council at 3 p.m. on the 13th.

The staff member reportedly explained that they "missed it" as the reason for missing the deadline.

That was not all.

Due to this administrative error, all athletes lost their right to compete in the National Games entirely.

After one of the original players was deleted and no new player was registered, the number of Incheon's registered players dropped to five on the system. This failed to meet the requirement of registering six players for team competition participation, ultimately causing issues with those athletes' eligibility for the National Games.

Even more absurdly, the Incheon City Sports Council did not realize this immediately.

Although the registration deadline was on the 13th, it is reported that the city sports council only identified the problem after the draw schedule was released on the evening of the 19th, six days later.

The problem did not end with soft tennis.

An administrative error also occurred during the player registration change process in the women's under-18 golf category.

Although the Incheon City Golf Association requested a player substitution, the city sports council failed to process it in time, resulting in higher-ranked athletes who were originally scheduled to compete being unable to participate, while lower-ranked athletes ended up competing instead.

Many athletes who had prepared for months for the National Games suffered due to administrative processing issues rather than their actual performance levels.

The Incheon City Sports Council has taken follow-up measures. It plans to transfer relevant staff members effective the 1st of next month and convene an personnel committee to initiate disciplinary procedures.

It also intends to implement preventive measures, including establishing a process to verify player registrations and participation status multiple times.

Lee Gyu-saeng, president of the Incheon City Sports Council, stated, "I fully recognize my responsibility. We will establish preventive measures to ensure such incidents never happen again."

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*This content was translated by AI.