Taiwan got back on the medal trail at the World Games yesterday with a silver medal in jujitsu and a bronze in korfball.
After a lull on Monday in which Taiwan earned just one silver in the softball, an invitational event, the nation’s athletes returned to their winning ways yesterday.
The two medals took Taiwan’s overall haul to a healthy five gold, five silver and three bronze in the first five days of competition, putting the nation fourth in the medals table.
Yang Hsien-tzu narrowly missed out on jujitsu gold, losing to Sabrina Hatzky of Germany in the final of the women’s 62kg division at the Sun Yat-sen University Gymnasium.
Earlier, in the men’s 69kg category, Liu Chieng-hung lost out on a bronze medal when he was defeated by Germany’s Andrej Tierbach in the repechage.
The nation’s first medal of the day had come earlier at the National Kaohsiung University gym as Taiwan secured third place and a bronze in the korfball third-fourth place playoff match against Russia. Leading 15-10 at halftime, Taiwan extended their lead in the second half on the back of some sharp shooting from No. 11 Wu Chun-hsien, who finished the match with six goals.
The Netherlands beat Belgium 25-20 for the gold medal and retained their title in a battle between the two traditional korfball powers.
Meanwhile, the second day of boules at the 228 Memorial Park saw Taiwanese duo Chen Hung-wen and Sun Chaia-yi grab another win, beating Belgium 13-6 to qualify for the final four before losing 13-4 against the same opponents in the semi-final. The women, however, were eliminated after another defeat when they lost 6-4 to Israel.
In the boules raffa, men’s doubles duo Chen Hung-ting and Huang Wei-hsiang were eliminated after being soundly beaten 15-0 by Brazil.
In the ladies’ division Chung Yu-chun and Tang Ya-ting suffered the same fate, losing 15-1 to Italian duo Loana Capelli and Elisa Luccarini.
The women’s boules Lyonnaise precision-throw preliminary round saw Taiwan’s Tsao Chia-hui go into the bronze-medal match after finishing fourth, while in the men’s event Huang Hsien-chang was eliminated after finishing fifth. In the shuttle throw semi-finals, home girl Huang Yu-ju finished fourth and was eliminated.
Meanwhile, in the 10-pin bowling singles, Wang Yu-ling qualified for the women’s top 10 round today, while compatriot Fang Chin-nan failed, finishing 13th overall in the men’s qualifying.
Also See: Taiwan suffers big losses in squash and air sports
FREEDOM OF NAVIGATION: The UK would continue to reinforce ties with Taiwan ‘in a wide range of areas’ as a part of a ‘strong unofficial relationship,’ a paper said The UK plans to conduct more freedom of navigation operations in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, British Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs David Lammy told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. British Member of Parliament Desmond Swayne said that the Royal Navy’s HMS Spey had passed through the Taiwan Strait “in pursuit of vital international freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.” Swayne asked Lammy whether he agreed that it was “proper and lawful” to do so, and if the UK would continue to carry out similar operations. Lammy replied “yes” to both questions. The
‘OF COURSE A COUNTRY’: The president outlined that Taiwan has all the necessary features of a nation, including citizens, land, government and sovereignty President William Lai (賴清德) discussed the meaning of “nation” during a speech in New Taipei City last night, emphasizing that Taiwan is a country as he condemned China’s misinterpretation of UN Resolution 2758. The speech was the first in a series of 10 that Lai is scheduled to give across Taiwan. It is the responsibility of Taiwanese citizens to stand united to defend their national sovereignty, democracy, liberty, way of life and the future of the next generation, Lai said. This is the most important legacy the people of this era could pass on to future generations, he said. Lai went on to discuss
MISSION: The Indo-Pacific region is ‘the priority theater,’ where the task of deterrence extends across the entire region, including Taiwan, the US Pacific Fleet commander said The US Navy’s “mission of deterrence” in the Indo-Pacific theater applies to Taiwan, Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Stephen Koehler told the South China Sea Conference on Tuesday. The conference, organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), is an international platform for senior officials and experts from countries with security interests in the region. “The Pacific Fleet’s mission is to deter aggression across the Western Pacific, together with our allies and partners, and to prevail in combat if necessary, Koehler said in the event’s keynote speech. “That mission of deterrence applies regionwide — including the South China Sea and Taiwan,” he
UNPRECEDENTED: In addition to the approved recall motions, cases such as Ma Wen-chun’s in Nantou are still under review, while others lack enough signatures The Central Election Commission (CEC) announced yesterday that a recall vote would take place on July 26, after it approved the first batch of recall motions targeting 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安). Taiwan is in the midst of an unprecedented wave of mass recall campaigns, following a civil society push that echoed a call made by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) in January to initiate signature drives aimed at unseating KMT legislators. Under the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), Taiwanese can initiate a recall of district-elected lawmakers by collecting