Jan O Jorgensen insisted he was not being "disrespectful" to the Malaysians when he tossed his opponent Iskandar Zulkarnain's shirt, which had the Southeast Asian country's flag during their China Open semi-final clash on Saturday.
The Danish shuttler faced the wrath of badminton fans following the incident, in which he was seen throwing a discarded shirt of Zulkarnain on the court.
Jorgensen eventually went on to beat the Malaysian shutter in the last-four clash after the latter forced a decider. He also defeated reigning Olympic champion Chen Long in the final to win the Men's singles title in Fuzhou.
Zulkarnain though appeared to have taken offence and reportedly told the local media that Jorgensen's attitude was disrespectful towards his country and the Malaysian national flag.
However, Jorgensen, right after finishing on the top step of the podium in China, apologised for his behaviour and said he had a lot of respect for Zulkarnain.
"im sorry for all the malaysians I have offended by throwing Iskandars shirt. Not my meaning to be disrespectful.. Not to Iskandar - I have a lot respect for him (sic)," Jorgensen wrote, in a post on his Facebook page.
The world number six also revealed that he had met the Malaysian shuttler in Hong Kong, where both the shuttlers are gearing up for the year's last Superseries event, starting on Tuesday.
Jorgensen also said that both of them agreed that the incident happened at the "heat of battle" and that the incident was "blown out of proportion".
"Ran into Iskandar outside the venue here in Hong Kong. We had a cordial chat about last week's semifinal and the events that followed. We both agreed that things got somewhat out of hand and were blown out of proportion (sic)," the Danish shuttler said, in another Facebook post on Tuesday.
"I'm very pleased that Iskandar and I can now bury the hatchet and I look forward to more battles in the years to come."
