All that glitters is not gold, Taiwan's athletes at the 14th Asian Games found yesterday in Busan, South Korea.
Taiwan's first medals were silver and bronze, but they were enough to give Taiwan a top-10 ranking after two days of competition.
PHOTO: AFP
Taiwan's rugby 7s team fought valiantly but could not overcome a South Korean side at the peak of its powers in the final, falling 33-21.
Meanwhile, women judoka Wang Chin-fang (
Meanwhile, Wang Shin-yuan (王信淵) claimed silver in the men's weightlifting 56kg class, just beating compatriot Yang Chin-yi (楊景翊) who took Taiwan's third bronze of the day.
Taiwan's sterling performances in rugby 7s against strong teams the previous day boded well going into the final round. Having whitewashed Hong Kong and China, Taiwan felt it could go all the way.
It's first task was to dispose of Thailand in the Pool B semifinal and it did so easily, brushing the Thais aside 19-0, with two tries in the first half from Wu Chih-wei (吳志威) and Pan Kuei-chih (潘溎志) and another touchdown from Wang Kuo-feng (王國峰) mid-way through the second half.
It should have been a confidence booster, but instead coach Wu Mao-sheng (
"We played very well in this competition and in the semifinal against Thailand we tried for an easy win, but then our players got a little nervous," Wu said.
Five minutes into the game and Taiwan was 5-0 down, as Korea's Park No-young broke through for the home team's first try and kicker Sung Hae-kyoung converted for two extra points and a 7-0 advantage.
Undaunted, Taiwan immediately fought back, with Chen Wen-yen (
Then, just before halftime, steady pressure from the Koreans paid off as Yong Hwang-myung managed to get over the line for a try after a scrum near the line. The conversion, however, bounced back off the bar and Korea led by five at the break.
Taiwan shocked the home fans when the second half started, however, when Wu Chih-hsien (
But Korea was not to be denied. It broke straight back from the kick, with Park Chang-min -- who proved to be a handful for Taiwan's defense -- collecting the ball and running through practically unopposed.
It was Park again who charged down a kick just after the restart, picking up the loose ball and sprinting in for his second try in as many minutes to give his team a 26-14 advantage.
It was too much for Taiwan's young tigers, who managed to get a try back when Chang Chin-fong (
"We didn't get as much rest as we would have liked and we weren't 100 percent," coach Wu said. He said the Korean team, most of whom are in their late 20s, was at its peak and would probably break up after the Games.
Taiwan, on the other hand, was a young team that would benefit from competing at this level and would "continue to grow and get better if it stays together," he said.
Taiwan has arranged for about 8 million barrels of crude oil, or about one-third of its monthly needs, to be shipped from the Red Sea this month to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and ease domestic supply pressures, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said yesterday. The state-run oil company has worked with Middle Eastern suppliers to secure routes other than the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes, CPC chairman Fang Jeng-zen (方振仁) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. Suppliers in Saudi Arabia have indicated they
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
AIR ALERT: China’s reservation of airspace over the Yellow Sea and East China Sea could be an attempt to test the US’ response ahead of a Trump-Xi meeting, the NSB head said China’s attempts to infiltrate Taiwan are systematic, planned and targeted, with activity shifting from recruiting mid-level military officers to rank-and-file enlisted personnel, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) integrates national security, intelligence operations and “united front” efforts into a dense network to conduct intelligence gathering and espionage in Taiwan, Tsai said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee. It uses specific networks to screen targets through exchange activities and recruiting local collaborators to establish intelligence-gathering organizations, he said. China is also shifting who it targets to lower-ranking military personnel,
RSS