Chuang Chih-yuan and Chen Chien-an will each receive NT$900,000 (US$30,033) from the government in recognition of their historic win over China in the men’s doubles category at the World Table Tennis Championships on Sunday in Paris, France.
It was Taiwan’s first gold medal since it began competing in the world championships in 1985.
“This is an important milestone in our table tennis history,” Chinese Taipei Table Tennis Association secretary-general Chen Ching-yen said.
Photo: AFP
Chuang and Chen Chien-an toppled their formidable Chinese opponents, Ma Lin and Hao Shuai, 4-2 (9-11, 12-10, 11-6, 13-11, 9-11 and 11-8) to secure the title.
Taiwan’s previous best result at the event had been a silver medal won by Chen Jing in the women’s singles 20 years ago.
“This is the first time in our history, so this is a good result,” said 32-year-old Chuang, a veteran player who ranks sixth in the world. “We played well and did very well tactically, both serving and receiving.”
Chuang was full of praise for his 21-year-old partner, Chen Chien-an.
“I think [he] is a very tactical player, he’s powerful and I play well with him,” the right-hander said.
Chen Chien-an, 28th in the world rankings, has enjoyed growing attention since he beat China’s Zhang Jike, last year’s Olympics men’s singles gold medalist, at the World Team Classic in March.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said he was excited by the victory and was quoted as saying: “It’s a hard-won achievement that highlights the Taiwan spirit of perseverance and fortitude.”
Ma Lin, the 2008 Olympics table tennis singles champion and a four-time World Cup winner, praised the Taiwanese team as worthy winners.
“The team is a very good one, so it’s no surprise we lost,” Ma Lin said.
Hao struck a similar chord, saying: “We did well today but our opponents did better than us.”
The 34-year-old Ma Lin, who was appearing in his ninth and final World Championships, also announced his impending plans to retire from the Chinese team.
“After this championship I think will quit the national team of China because at my age I have to rethink my career and my life, but for now I don’t have any exact information. I don’t have the exact plans. I will tell the media when I get more information,” he said.
The Taiwanese duo’s surprise victory squashed China’s hopes of taking its 11th consecutive title at the world championships.
In Sunday’s game, the focus was almost entirely on the Chinese team and the result came as a surprise to many spectators.
In Taiwan, netizens celebrated the hard-won victory.
“The duo is the pride of Taiwan. A new era is dawning in our table tennis history,” one netizen wrote on PTT, the nation’s largest bulletin-board system.
Additional reporting by Reuters
The domestically designed Teng Yun 2 drone passed development milestones over the weekend, flying for more than 10 hours straight and circling Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ), in the longest flight of an indigenous uncrewed combat aerial vehicle. Developed by the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology, the Teng Yun 2, or “Cloud Rider” (騰雲二型), recorded its longest flight yet over the weekend, after a three-hour test flight last month, followed by five and seven-hour stretches in the air. The Teng Yun 2 No. 1812 departed from Chiashan Air Base in Hualien County at 6:46pm on Saturday and flew on a
A slew of new measures are to take effect on Friday, including nationwide bring-your-own-cup discounts. The new rule requires chain beverage shops to offer discounts of at least NT$5 (US$0.17) to customers who bring their own cups, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has said. The policy would apply to more than 50,000 chain retail locations, including beverage shops, convenience stores, fast-food restaurants and supermarkets. It aims to cut down on waste from single-use plastic cups, more than 2.2 billion of which were used in Taiwan in 2020, the agency said. For convenience, the EPA said it has asked retailers to display signs stating how
TIMING: 'The CHIPS Act funding is crucial for us. In other words, if the act’s passage is delayed for too long, we will certainly need to adjust,’ chairwoman Doris Hsu said GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓) plans to start construction on a US$5 billion wafer fabrication facility in Texas in November, after passage of the US$52 billion Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) for America Act. The fab would be the largest of its kind in the US and one of the largest in the world, with a monthly capacity of 1.2 million wafers, GlobalWafers said, adding that the investment would be the first new fab in the US in more than 20 years and critical to closing a semiconductor supply chain gap. The world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier said the project, which
COUNTERING CHINA: ‘When democracies demonstrate what we can do ... I have no doubt that we’ll win that competition every time,’ US President Joe Biden said US President Joe Biden rebooted his effort to counter China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) after an earlier campaign faltered, enlisting the support of G7 leaders at their summit in Germany. The Build Back Better World initiative, named after Biden’s domestic spending and climate agenda, struggled to get off the ground because not enough G7 partners contributed financially when it was unveiled a year ago, people familiar with its lack of progress said. “When democracies demonstrate what we can do — all that we have to offer — I have no doubt that we’ll win that competition every time,” Biden said during
RSS