Taiwan’s Ho Chiu-mei (何秋美) and Ho Chiu-hsiang (何秋香) settled for silver medals in women’s doubles tennis at the Deaflympics yesterday, while An Ching-lung (安慶隆) took home the bronze in the decathlon.
The “Golden Girls” lost to their German opponents 6-2, 2-6, 1-6 at the Rainbow Riverside Sports Park.
The battle was tough, as the elder sister, Ho Chiu-hsiang, had cramps in both legs by the third set. The two lost one game when the match referee ruled that they had delayed the proceedings too long.
PHOTO: CNA
Both decided to continue the fight, with Ho Chiu-mei handling the attack from their opponents and her elder sister playing the ball while stationary on the court whenever she could.
Despite the crisis, the two managed to win one game in the third set.
When their opponents threatened with four match points, the sisters broke three before finally handing the Germans the victory.
PHOTO: SUN CHUNG-TA, TAIPEI TIMES
Ho Chiu-hsiang was later sent to the emergency room for treatment.
“I asked her if she wanted to continue,” Ho Chiu-mei told reporters.
“I said we’d quit if she could not handle the game anymore. She said she could carry on. We thought: ‘We’re competing in the Deaflympics in Taipei, in Taiwan, in a championship match. We should do everything we can to fight until the end,’” Ho Chiu-mei said.
PHOTO: CHIEN JUNG-FONG, TAIPEI TIMES
Their coach, Chang Yue-han (張約翰), said that Ho Chiu-hsiang was hoping to take down her opponents by moving quickly around the court.
“Chiu-hsiang is 50, and Amei [Ho Chiu-mei] is 47, the two oldest athletes in tennis,” Chang said.
“When you add up the ages of our opponents, it’s pretty much equal to the age of either one of them. What she [Ho Chiu-hsiang] considered the best strategy became the key to their failure,” Chang said.
In the decathlon at Taipei Municipal Stadium, An Ching-lung won the bronze medal after scoring a total of 6,106 points. Russian Kirill Tsybizov secured the gold with a total of 6,500 points, while Craig Saafeld from the US nailed the silver by gaining 6,381 points.
“He is the pride of the Amis Tribe, the pride of the Aborigines and the pride of Taiwan,” said An’s coach, Wang Wen-hsiang (王文祥).
An finished third in the 110m hurdles and secured fifth in the discus category. He ranked second in the pole vault after clearing 4.2m and then threw the javelin 48.31m. When he finished sixth in the 1,500m, An lay on the ground and pointed his fingers to the sky, which he said was a gesture to thank God.
Though he won the gold in 2001 and a silver in 2005, An said the bronze medal meant more to him than his previous medals because this had been the highest score he has attained. An scored 5,613 points at the 2005 Deaflympics in Melbourne, Australia.
Wang said An had done his best in the competition, noting that An was 10 years older than the average age of the decathletes.
Meanwhile, the nation failed in its bid to win another gold in table tennis as the two men’s doubles teams were eliminated in the second round of the preliminaries and in the quarter-finals yesterday.
Wen Chih-hsuan (溫智璇) and Yang Jung-Tsung (楊榮宗), the champions at the 2005 Deaflympics, lost to China’s Li Yunnan and Wang Cong. Their teammates, Chiang Feng-ming (江豐明) and Kuo Yueh-tung (郭岳東), managed to get to the quarter-finals, where they were soon eliminated by Andrii Gnatiuk Gennadii Zakladnyi of Ukraine.
Taiwan’s men’s and women’s badminton doubles pairings were also eliminated in the quarter-final.
In the women’s singles, Fan Jung-yu (范榮玉) failed to make the quarter-finals when she lost to Lithuania’s Kristina Dovydaityte.
Also See: DEAFLYMPICS TAIPEI 2009: Ukraine, Russia to battle for final gold
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
PLUGGING HOLES: The amendments would bring the legislation in line with systems found in other countries such as Japan and the US, Legislator Chen Kuan-ting said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed amending national security legislation amid a spate of espionage cases. Potential gaps in security vetting procedures for personnel with access to sensitive information prompted him to propose the amendments, which would introduce changes to Article 14 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said yesterday. The proposal, which aims to enhance interagency vetting procedures and reduce the risk of classified information leaks, would establish a comprehensive security clearance system in Taiwan, he said. The amendment would require character and loyalty checks for civil servants and intelligence personnel prior to
RSS