Taiwanese athletes raced their way to four gold medals and two silvers yesterday, wining the women’s cycling road race and dominating the inline skating events at the Asian Games in Guangzhou, China.
Hsiao Mei-yu (蕭美玉) was victorious in the women’s road cycling race, becoming the first Taiwanese rider to claim a road cycling medal in the history of the Asian Games.
She managed to out sprint Indonesia’s Santia Tri Kusuma and China’s Zhao Na (趙娜), who was disappointed to come home third after a grueling 100km ride.
Photo: AFP
“I’m too excited to say anything. I didn’t expect to win a medal, I thought I’d just be in the top 10,” said Hsiao, who was in tears as she stood on the podium to receive her gold medal.
However, it was Hsiao’s second medal of the Games. She won Taiwan’s first medal at the competition on Nov. 13 by taking bronze in the women’s 500m time trial.
Hsiao finished yesterday’s five laps in two hours, 47 minutes, 46.12 seconds, with Kusuma finishing 0.4 seconds behind and Zhao 0.51 seconds back.
Hong Kong’s Diao Xiaojuan (刁小娟) dislocated her shoulder in one of two spectacular pile-ups and was unable to finish the race, while Japan’s defending champion and pre-race favorite Mayuko Hagiwara came a disappointing 14th.
Zhao, silver medalist four years ago in Doha, stood glumly on the winners’ podium after her bronze.
Taiwanese inline skaters won two gold and two silver medals in the men’s roller sports 300m time trial and 500m sprint races.
Sung Ching-yang (宋青陽) won gold in a time of 24.777 seconds and teammate Lo Wei-lin (駱威霖) took silver with a time of 25:026 seconds in the 300m time trial. The two beat two South Korean competitors for the top spots.
The duo then went on to finish 1-2 in the 500m sprint to cap a terrific afternoon.
Taiwan’s Huang Yu-ting (黃郁婷) also took the gold in the women’s roller sports 500m spint race.
Hsiao’s win increased Taiwan’s gold medal haul in Guangzhou to 10, surpassing the number won at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, Qatar and equaling the total won at the 2002 Asiad in Busan, South Korea.
CHAOS: Iranians took to the streets playing celebratory music after reports of Khamenei’s death on Saturday, while mourners also gathered in Tehran yesterday Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a major attack on Iran launched by Israel and the US, throwing the future of the Islamic republic into doubt and raising the risk of regional instability. Iranian state television and the state-run IRNA news agency announced the 86-year-old’s death early yesterday. US President Donald Trump said it gave Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back” their country. The announcements came after a joint US and Israeli aerial bombardment that targeted Iranian military and governmental sites. Trump said the “heavy and pinpoint bombing” would continue through the week or as long
An Emirates flight from Dubai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday afternoon, the first service of the airline since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday. Flight EK366 took off from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 3:51am yesterday and landed at 4:02pm before taxiing to the airport’s D6 gate at Terminal 2 at 4:08pm, data from the airport and FlightAware, a global flight tracking site, showed. Of the 501 passengers on the flight, 275 were Taiwanese, including 96 group tour travelers, the data showed. Tourism Administration Deputy Director-General Huang He-ting (黃荷婷) greeted Taiwanese passengers at the airport and
TRUST: The KMT said it respected the US’ timing and considerations, and hoped it would continue to honor its commitments to helping Taiwan bolster its defenses and deterrence US President Donald Trump is delaying a multibillion-dollar arms sale to Taiwan to ensure his visit to Beijing is successful, a New York Times report said. The weapons sales package has stalled in the US Department of State, the report said, citing US officials it did not identify. The White House has told agencies not to push forward ahead of Trump’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), it said. The two last month held a phone call to discuss trade and geopolitical flashpoints ahead of the summit. Xi raised the Taiwan issue and urged the US to handle arms sales to
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday said that it had confirmed on Saturday night with its liquefied natural gas (LNG) and crude oil suppliers that shipments are proceeding as scheduled and that domestic supplies remain unaffected. The CPC yesterday announced the gasoline and diesel prices will rise by NT$0.2 and NT$0.4 per liter, respectively, starting Monday, citing Middle East tensions and blizzards in the eastern United States. CPC also iterated it has been reducing the proportion of crude oil imports from the Middle East and diversifying its supply sources in the past few years in response to geopolitical risks, expanding
RSS