Although Taiwan’s Kuo Chia-mi (郭嘉秘) trumped her opponents in Tuesday’s women’s sprint orienteering, she could only finish sixth in yesterday’s middle distance event.
Kuo was also eliminated from the women’s discus throw, in which she won a bronze in the 2001 Rome Deaflympics.
Taiwan’s women’s basketball lost 40-82 to Greece and will battle it out against Hong Kong for ninth place tomorrow.
HEALTH SCARE
Meanwhile, there has been some confusion about two foreign athletes attending the Deaflympics, who were reportedly infected with the H1N1 virus and banned from the games.
Officials said on Monday that a Japanese soccer player had tested positive for the H1N1 virus and early yesterday, Chiu Wen-hsiang, medical supervisor for the Games, told reporters that an Israeli basketball player had also been infected.
“They have been banned from the Games and have been put into isolation in their hotels,” he said.
Chiu said both athletes fell ill after arriving in Taipei, but it was not clear if they were infected in their own countries or in Taiwan.
Taipei City’s Department of Health, however, announced yesterday that further examination of the Japanese athlete found that he had contracted the H3 strain.
The department said that it had been verified that the Israeli player was suffering from A-type flu, but at press time it still hadn’t been determined if he had A(H1N1) flu.
Swine flu is spreading quickly in Taiwan. As of yesterday, 161 people have been infected: 49 remain hospitalized and 11 have died.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY DPA AND STAFF WRITER
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