Three days into the Deaflympics, Taiwan have made a heady start, securing second place in the overall medals standings even though yesterday was fraught with eliminations, losses and forfeits.
Reigning women’s 50m backstroke champion Tseng Shu-ning, originally tapped as a potential gold medalist, was surprisingly eliminated from the 200m backstroke after placing fifth in her qualification heat.
Tseng took the lead in the first 100m but was then affected by dizziness, her coach said.
PHOTO: LO PEI-DER, TAIPEI TIMES
Bowler Chang Li-hsiao, who also had high hopes of a medal, scored a below-par 1,026 in the men’s singles tournament.
Chang, who won gold in the trio, team and masters competions four years ago in Melbourne, hurt his left arm eight days ago and complained of a sore thumb yesterday.
“Definitely very disappointed in my today’s performance but I am confident about the upcoming competitions,” he said.
The experienced bowler will again compete in the men’s trio, team, and master’s competitions.
It was a bad day for the men’s and women’s beach volleyball teams, which both forfeited matches because of injuries to players.
The women’s table tennis team’s medal hopes evaporated after their defeat by Ukraine. Nevertheless coach Chen Ching-bing said he was pleased with his players especially as this was their first international event.
Taiwan’s women’s basketball team lost 42-61 to China. After an even first half the Chinese pulled out of reach following eight three-point shots.
Meanwhile, taekwondo referees yesterday staged a brief strike after sharp criticism from Taiwanese coach Chiu Kong-cheng, who accused them of unfair calls during a bout involving Taiwan’s Lin Bo-cong in the men’s under 68kg competition on Monday.
Fights were delayed for 50 minutes before the referees agreed to resume duty but only after Chiu offered an official apology in writing.
■VOLLEYBALL
By Richard Hazeldine
STAFF REPORTER
Taiwan’s men sunk to a disappointing 3-0 defeat by Venezuela yesterday in the Deaflympics Volleyball.
Cheered on by several hundred fans at the National Taiwan University Sports Center, the home team started brightly and matched their opponents early on, even sneaking into an 11-10 lead on the strength of some towering spikes from tall No. 8 Liang Ting-wei.
Venezuela then fought back with good defensive blocks at the net to grab the advantage, which they managed to hold onto, despite some tenacious play from Taiwan, to take the first set 21-25.
Taiwan started the second set well with some great attacking spikes from No. 2 Chu Chun-pu, but Venezuela’s strong defense eventually began to take its toll as the South Americans surged into a 6-13 lead. Taiwan then began to tire, their setting became ragged and mistakes crept into their play as Venezuela wrapped up the second set 16-25.
The third set was a one-sided affair as the Venezuelan blocking again nullified the dual threat of Liang and Chu, while poor serving and some basic errors saw the South Americans take the final set 11-25.
The defeat was the second in two days for Taiwan, who also lost their first qualifying game on Monday night when they went down three sets to one (25-19, 24-26, 16-25, 23-25) against Germany at the Sinjhuang Gymnasium.
In other action Russia’s men secured their third victory of the tournament with a 3-1 win against Japan, while Ukraine beat Poland 3-0 and Turkey defeated Fiji 3-1.
In the women’s event, Belarus continued their good form with a three sets to zero victory over Russia while Ukraine earned a third preliminary victory, beating the US by the same margin.
Italy beat Argentina 3-0 while Japan downed Russia 3-0.
■SOCCER
By Dave Carroll
STAFF REPORTER
The US pulled off the shock of the Deaflympics men’s soccer tournament yesterday at Yingfeng Sports Park in Taipei when they rallied from 1-0 down to stun reigning champions Great Britain with a 3-1 victory, a result that put the US into the quarter-finals and left Britain to battle it out for ninth place.
Britain’s James Clarke opened the scoring in the Group A match in the eighth minute, but goals from Francis Neil, Matthew Eby and Angel Ortiz meant the US surprised nearly everyone by finishing second on goal difference, relegating the title holders to third spot.
Ireland took top honors in Group A after a 0-0 draw with Japan gave them five points.
In Group B, Germany had already clinched top spot. In the final group game, it was a straight knockout for second place between highly-fancied Iran and Spain.
With Alireza Basij running the midfield, Iran took the game to Spain early and it only took five minutes for them to grab the lead. Mostafa Heydaribondarabadi beat the Spanish defense on the left and crossed for Iman Mohebi Abkenar to poke the ball home.
Spain’s best chance came in the 21st minute when David Fernandez crossed from the left and Oscar Rodriguez’s header hit the post.
Substitute Mazaher Shirzad Sibani doubled the lead on 35 minutes after Basij beat a number of defenders before his shot was parried back to Sibani by Spain keeper Antonio Aznar.
Mohebi Abkenar wrapped it up in the 76th minute when the ball broke for him in the box and he slotted home his second.
In the afternoon’s matches, Russia finished top of Group C after a 6-0 win over South Korea, with a hat-trick from Nikolay Afanasyev. Vladislav Zorin, Marat Shirinyants and Vladimir Ivanov got the other goals for Russia, who face the US in the quarter-finals.
That result meant the winner of the match between France and South Africa would book a quarter-final against Ireland, and it was the French who came out on top.
After a goalless first half, France wrapped up the points within eight minutes of the restart. Roch Opina opened their account in the 51st minute when he bundled in a corner and two minutes later Malick Babo’s free-kick from 25m out curled into the top corner.
Captain Hakim Boughanmi made it 3-0 in injury-time, blasting in from the right side of the penalty area.
In Group D, Ukraine sealed top spot and a quarter-final against Iran tomorrow with a 6-0 demolition of Kazakhstan with Makar Bukin grabbing a hat-trick.
Argentina claimed the last quarter-final spot against Germany after a 3-0 victory over Denmark.
Ricardo Mestre Picon bagged a brace and captain Claudio Alvarez also scored.
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