Charges of match fixing and skewed judges have trumped sporting achievements at China's tenth National Games, an event seen as a dry run to the 2008 Beijing [Images] Olympics [Images].

Scandal is not new to the domestic sporting extravaganza, at which provinces desperate to bring home glory offer native athletes rewards for medals that can even surpass those offered by Beijing to Olympic champions.

Jiangsu province, which is hosting the competition, is at the top of medal table with half the games over.

Over the weekend, the Tianjin gymnastics team filed a complaint after defending champion Dong Zhen pulled off an excellent performance on the rings but ended up 0.038 points shy of his third consecutive domestic title, Xinhua news agency said.

The gold went to Huang Xu of Jiangsu.

"Why did they only pick on Dong Zhen's mistakes and not mention Huang's?" Yao Hongchen, head of the Tianjin gymnastics team, was quoted as saying.

The same day, spectators booed Olympic and world champion Li Xiaopeng when he won the parallel bars with a 9.800 score on his last run "despite obvious faults in the routine", Xinhua said.

The biggest fuss has surrounded the taekwondo and judo competitions.

"Insiders say that in taekwondo, conceding matches has become rampant, and the problem is even more serious than that in judo," the domestic Sports Weekly newspaper said on Monday.

In the women's 67 kg taekwondo competition involving 19 athletes, champion Zhao Yang of Jiangsu took the title after only one match, and Olympic champion Luo Wei, also a Jiangsu native, faced just one opponent on route to a fourth-place finish.

FINAL REHELD

On Saturday, the finals of the women's 78 kg judo event were reheld after Liaoning province athlete Sun Fuming was accused of deliberately losing to Yan Sirui, representing Liaoning and the People's Liberation Army team, in the original final on Thursday.

"They are both from Liaoning, so whoever wins the title doesn't matter," coach Liu Yongfu was quoted as saying.

Yan ended up holding on to her gold, while Liu received a warning from China's Olympic organisers.

Even before competition began, three Chinese wrestling judges were banned for life after being charged with taking bribes in run-up matches to the national games.

To prevent rigging of soccer matches, games organisers have introduced controversial rules that all matches must end with a clear winner and loser, meaning draws will go to an immediate penalty shootout.

"The organisers explained that they adopted the rules in a bid to prevent match-fixing, which has beset the sport in the country in recent years," Xinhua said.

Liu Peng, head of China's General Administration of Sports, vowed after the judo finals scandal to show "no mercy" to rule-breaking athletes or officials at the games.

"We must uphold justice in sport," Xinhua quoted him as saying.