Taiwan’s Huang Yun-wen (黃韻文) defeated Yoon Jeong-yeon of South Korea in the women’s 53kg division to win an Asian Games gold medal in taekwondo yesterday, while Taiwanese No. 1 Lu Yen-hsun (盧彥勳) had to settle for silver in the men’s singles tennis and Sun Huei-ning (孫穗檸) picked up a bronze, also in taekwondo.
Teenager Huang held on to defeat her slightly more experienced opponent 4-2, a three-point kick to the face in the first round the difference in the three-round bout.
Down 3-0 after the first round, Yoon responded with one-point kicks in the second round and early in the third, but the 19-year-old Taiwanese scored a point of her own midway through the final round to give herself a two-point cushion, before adeptly keeping the South Korean at bay in the final minute and a half to secure the gold, Taiwan’s eighth at the Games in Incheon, South Korea.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
Earlier, Sun captured the bronze in the women’s 49kg division after being edged out by Chanatip Sonkham of Thailand 4-3 in the semi-finals.
Sun held a 3-0 lead heading into the final round, but lost when she was tagged with a three-point kick to the head and handed a penalty point.
Sonkham went on to defeat China’s Li Zhaoyi (李照藝) 10-3 in the gold-medal bout.
Unable to overcome physical and mental fatigue, Lu had his dream of a men’s singles gold medal shattered when he was upset by a Japanese upstart.
Nineteen-year-old Yoshihito Nishioka, ranked 168th in the world and seeded fifth at the Games, was more consistent and quicker to the ball than the Taiwanese veteran in a comprehensive 6-2, 6-2 win.
“I really treasured this opportunity with the national team, but I wasn’t able to complete my mission. I am very sorry,” Lu said.
Lu had struggled throughout the tournament, both on and off the court, and those ordeals seemed to finally catch up with him in the final.
Suffering from a nagging groin injury, the 31-year-old was not nearly as agile around the court as his Japanese opponent, who consistently returned everything and rallied patiently from the baseline, waiting for Lu to make a mistake.
Needing some momentum after faltering in the first set, Lu served two consecutive double faults in the first game of the second set and then he double-faulted on break point at 2-4, a point that essentially sealed the match for Nishioka.
Lu refused to use the injury as an excuse and praised the teenager.
“To talk about the injury now serves no purpose,” Lu said. “My opponent probably had less pressure on him, but he did play at a higher level than I did. I congratulate him on having such a good result in his first Asian Games.”
Lu admitted to being weighed down by the mental strain of an ongoing dispute with the ATP and the pressure of living up to his billing as heavy favorite at the Games.
Lu, who was entered in the China Open that began on Monday, was threatened by the ATP last week with a three-year ban and a US$100,000 fine if he competed in the Asian Games and did not show up for the ATP Tour tournament in Beijing.
Lu eventually pulled out of the China Open and his team said it had worked out a compromise with the ATP whereby the Taiwanese player would be fined, but not banned for any length of time.
In the softball, Taiwan’s women’s team completed their matches by defeating hosts South Korea 6-0 to finish second in Group A behind Japan with a 4-1 record.
In the volleyball, the women’s team beat Hong Kong 25-18, 25-14, 25-9 to set up a clash with Kazakhstan for fifth place, while the men’s team defeated Pakistan 25-19, 26-24, 25-19 to set up a game for ninth place, also with Kazakhstan.
In the rugby, Taiwan’s men lost both their Group C matches, falling to a 24-7 defeat to Sri Lanka and being then being beaten 35-12 by South Korea.
Additional reporting by Dave Carroll
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
The National Development Council (NDC) yesterday unveiled details of new regulations that ease restrictions on foreigners working or living in Taiwan, as part of a bid to attract skilled workers from abroad. The regulations, which could go into effect in the first quarter of next year, stem from amendments to the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及僱用法) passed by lawmakers on Aug. 29. Students categorized as “overseas compatriots” would be allowed to stay and work in Taiwan in the two years after their graduation without obtaining additional permits, doing away with the evaluation process that is currently required,
IMPORTANT BACKER: China seeks to expel US influence from the Indo-Pacific region and supplant Washington as the global leader, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said China is preparing for war to seize Taiwan, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said in Washington on Friday, warning that Taiwan’s fall would trigger a regional “domino effect” endangering US security. In a speech titled “Maintaining the Peaceful and Stable Status Quo Across the Taiwan Strait is in Line with the Shared Interests of Taiwan and the United States,” Chiu said Taiwan’s strategic importance is “closely tied” to US interests. Geopolitically, Taiwan sits in a “core position” in the first island chain — an arc stretching from Japan, through Taiwan and the Philippines, to Borneo, which is shared by
RSS