Taiwan yesterday had another good day at the Taipei Summer Universiade, with female speedster Yang Ho-chen (楊合貞) leading the way with two gold medals and Huang Yu-lin (黃玉霖) finishing first in the men’s sprint event in roller sports.
Yang burned up the track to win in the women’s 15,000m race and 1,000m sprint, with teammate Lee Meng-chu (李孟竹) the runner-up in both events.
Huang clocked the fastest time to finish ahead of Ko Fu-shiuan (柯福軒) in the men’s 1,000m sprint at the Yingfeng Riverside Park (迎風河濱公園) Roller Sports Rink.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
It was a day to celebrate for schools in southern Taiwan, with Yang attending National University of Tainan, while Huang, Li and Ko are students at National Pingtung University.
Fans hailed Yang’s achievement over the past two days, with a win in the 10,000m points-elimination race on Monday making it three personal golds.
Yang’s performance lifted Taiwan’s gold medal tally to seven, surpassing the nation’s total of six at the previous Games in Gwangju, South Korea, in 2015 and equaling their best showing at all Universiades.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
As of press time last night, Taiwan had seven golds, 11 silvers and three bronzes, putting them third overall, behind North Korea and Japan.
Yang first won the 15,000m final with a time of 26 minutes, 57.916 seconds, and finished the 1,000m sprint in 1 minute, 34.805 seconds.
“I am so happy to win the two events today and keep the gold medals at home in Taiwan,” Yang said. “The results helped to chase away my earlier downcast feelings, because I had not won any title at international competitions in the past two years.”
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
“I also want to give credit to my coach. I could not have done so well in these events without his help,” she said.
Huang finished the 1,000m sprint in a time of 1 minute, 24.020 seconds.
Ko pocketed the silver in the men’s 15,000m final, with Carlos Franco and Carlos Perez of Colombia taking gold and silver respectively.
Taiwan also took two bronzes in weightlifting yesterday, with Chiang Nien-hsin (江念欣) third in the women’s 63kg category.
She finished behind gold medalist Rim Un-sim of North Korea, while Tima Turieva of Russia claimed silver.
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