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Taiwan outshoots the competition for gold

Taiwan hit the target twice yesterday at the 14th Asian Games in Busan, South Korea, winning gold medals in shooting and 9-ball pool.

The victories boosted Taiwan's medal tally to four golds, five silvers and 13 bronzes after six full days of competition.

There was disappointment and some questions asked about the judging, however, after South Korea took two golds in bodybuilding, but overall the nation can be satisfied with its medal haul so far.

After an exhaustive semifinal round in the 9-ball pool, Yang Chin-shun (楊清順) eventually triumphed over his Filipino rival Antonio Lining to set up a late evening crunch match for the gold medal with Warren Kiamco, also of the Philippines.

The slim pool shark from Kao-hsiung proved he was the biggest fish in Asia's 9-ball pool game by racing into the lead with impeccable potting and sure safe play, never letting his Filipino adversary into the match and running out winner 11-3.

"It wasn't easy but compared with the semifinal match it was," Yang told the Taipei Times after the victory ceremony.

Taiwan's Yang Ching-shun concentrates before hitting the ball during the 9-ball pool final while shooter Chen Shih-wei aims during the men's double trap final, at the 14th Busan Asian Games yesterday. They both won gold in their events. PHOTOS: AP AND AFP

"The semifinal against Lining could have gone either way and I just had to concentrate, so when I played the final my eye was in and I just played very well," Yang said.

His elated coach, Shiau Yoong-shi (蕭永熙) said he was now hoping to bring home one more gold medal than at last year's Asian Games in Bangkok, at which Taiwan won three.

"Gold brings gold, so I'm very happy," he said.

In the men's double trap shooting event, Chen Shi-hsan (陳世偉) hit the mark when he beat both the heavily supported South Korean Jung Yoon-kyun and his compa-triot, Shih Wei-tin (施維庭), in a shootout.

After going head to head, Chen faced off against Jung and Shih in a playoff and was steady enough not to miss, while his opponents made one error each.

"I have to thank my parents for the victory and all the money they put in so that I could keep up with practice," Chen said.

The 23-year-old marksman said his parents had supported him to the tune of over NT$5 million over the past five years and said his victory at the Games was due in part to the seven months of target practice he had been able to put in over the past seven months.

Shi said he might have won if he had shot last but the pressure of going first had perhaps caused him to miss the target once. Even so, he said, he was satisfied with his silver medal.

Taiwan also managed to get among the medals in tennis, with its women's team taking a bronze medal. In table tennis it was the same result, with its men's team also taking third place.

There were questions over judging in the bodybuilding contest, however, when South Korea walked away with gold medals in the bodybuilding competition.

Taiwan's Chen Jung-sheng (陳榮生) lost out to Cho Wang-bung in the flyweight category, while most observers had either the bigger Ibrahim Bin Sihat or the more honed Van Mach Pham as the winner.

Questioned after the medals ceremony by the Taipei Times as to whether home-crowd support could have swayed the judges, Cho said he understood why people might think that he had been favored.

"Actually," he said, "though Pham has an excellent body I think mine is better and I also beat him in the Asian championships last year and that was not in Korea.

"There are always questions about favoritism for the host country, like in Salt Lake City, in the US [at the Winter Olympics] where many people thought our ice speed skater won, but the prize was given to an American."
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