Taiwan's women's archery team took home the nation's first medal yesterday, a bronze.
After being defeated in the semifinal by China 226-230 to which they had advanced after beating Germany, the Taiwan team beat France 242-228 in the playoff for third place.
The team consisted of Yuan Shu-chi (
"Finally we've fulfilled our promise to win the medal, especially since the entire Taiwan delegation has yet to get any others," said the team's coach, Tang Chin-lan (
South Korea took the gold in the women's team event, beating China 241-240.
Meanwhile, Taiwan's baseball team lost a crucial match to Italy 5-4 yesterday on the fifth day of preliminary games and with it reduced their chance of making into the quarterfinals.
Going into the game with a record of two wins and two losses, Taiwan faced an unexpectedly strong challenge from the Italians, who had lost all four of their previous games.
"I did not expect that we could lose the match," said head coach Hsu Sheng-ming (徐生明). "Now the situation is really disadvantageous ... we have to win the last two games."
Hsu blamed the loss on the poor performance of the pitchers.
Chang Chih-chia (
Chen Chih-yuan made up for that error in the bottom of the third when he hit a single and then stole second. He got the team's first run after Chen Chin-feng (
Mario Chiarini hit a homerun in the fourth inning to give Italy a 2-1 lead.
In the bottom of the fifth Chen Yung-chi (
Italy drew even with a homerun in the sixth by Buccheri.
Lin En-yu's (
Disaster struck in the top of the ninth when Giuseppe Mazzanti hit a two-run homer off closer Yang Chien-fu (
The baseball team must win its remaining two preliminary games -- against Japan today and the Netherlands tomorrow -- to make it into the semifinal round.
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