Huang Chih-hsiung (黃志雄) narrowly missed being the third member of Team Taiwan to bring home a gold medal yesterday, being beaten by Iran's Hadi Saei Bonehkohal in the final of the taekwondo competition's men's under-68kg category at the Olympic Games in Athens.
Nevertheless Hung's silver still marks extraordinary sucess for the nation's taekwondo team, coming in the wake of the victories of his team mates Chu Mu-yen (朱木炎) in the men's under-58kg event and and Chen Shih-hsin (陳詩欣) in the women's under-48kg event on Thursday.
PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Back home, the entire country yesterday celebrated the victories of Chu and Chen. President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) paid a visit to the home of Chu's family in Taoyuan and Chen Shih-hsin's family in Taipei to honor the two sports heroes' outstanding achievements.
Encouraged by their teammates' extraordinary success, the 28-year-old Huang and his female teammate, 22-year-old Chi Shu-ju, (紀淑如), also made their attempts to be recognized as the best athletes in their weight categories.
Huang, was already soething of a national hero after winning numerous gold medals during his 16-year taekwondo career.
Chu fought in the women's under-57kg category.
Huang easily defeated Egypt's Tamer Hussein with a score of 8-1 during the preliminary round and entered the quarterfinal to fight with Austria's Tuncay Caliskan, who won his first victory by knocking out his opponent with a strong roundhouse kick to the head.
Huang fell behind Caliskan with a score of 1-3 after the end of first round, but he adjusted his tactics to made several successful offensive kicks to reverse the score at the end of the second round, finishing 6-5.
In the final round, Huang used his left foot to achieve three points consecutively, leaving the score 9-6. Then Caliskan began a more aggressive pattern of attacks, which revealed his weak defensive abilities and gave Huang another opportunity to score.
Huang won the match 10-8, entering the semifinals.
In the semifinal round, Huang defeated his opponent, Guatemala's Gabriel Sagastume with a score of 7-5. The first round began slowly, with Huang pulling ahead with a score of 1-0. In the second round, Sagastume gained steam as he and Huang exchanged blows with metronomic regularity, finishing the round with a 4-4 draw. In the final round, Huang adjusted his tactics and adopted a conservative approach, allowing Sagastume to initiate an attack before landing devastating counterblows on his opponent to pull ahead with a four-point lead, which was later reduced by two points on penalties.
Meanwhile, Chi beat her first opponent with a score of 8-0 in the preliminary round, during which she displayed her lightning-fast roundhouse kicks, also twice landing axe kicks on her opponent.
However, she fought too cautiously during her quarterfinal match with Thailand's Nootcharin Sukkhongdumnoen, resulting in her defeat by one point, with a narrow score of 1-2.
Meanwhile Thursday's gold medal winners, expressed their appreciation for the support of their countrymen, vowing that they will continue to develop their taekwondo careers to bring the nation further glory.
Hundreds of Taiwanese, who attended the competition at the Pavillion Stadium to cheer on the nation's taekwondo athletes, excitedly yelled the slogan "Taiwan No. 1" to celebrate Chu and Chen's victories.
These were Taiwan's first Olympic gold medals.
The victory ceremony to raise Taiwan's Olympic flag and sang the National Flag Song which was regulated by International Olympic Committee since 1981, also attracted international media's question of "why couldn't Taiwan use its national flag and national anthem?"
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
RSS