Taiwanese athletes yesterday reaped more success at the Taipei Summer Universiade, adding five gold medals to their haul with wins in gymnastics, weightlifting and roller sports.
Gymnast Lee Chih-kai (李智凱) started the gold rush when he overcame a strong field of contenders to take first place in the pommel horse final in artistic gymnastics at the Nangang Exhibition Center in Taipei.
Hung Wan-ting (洪萬庭) won the 69kg category in women’s weightlifting.
Photo: CNA
She snatched 101kg and lifted 126kg in the clean and jerk for a combined 227kg to place first.
Taiwan’s roller speedsters continued to enjoy home-field advantage at the Yingfeng Riverside Park (迎風河濱公園) Roller Sports Rink.
They raced past opponents to pick up three golds: Chen Ying-chu (陳映竹) in the women’s 500m sprint, while Taiwan’s teams won the men’s and women’s 3,000m relay finals.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
In taekwondo, Chuang Chia-chia (莊佳佳) battled her way into the final, but had to settle for the silver after being defeated 14-7 by Kim Jan-di of South Korea.
At press time last night, Taiwan had 12 golds, 13 silvers and six bronzes, third overall behind South Korea (17, 11, 17) and Japan (15, 11, 17).
Lee was superlative on the pommel horse, earning a combined 15.300 points from the judges to top all challengers.
Photo: Huang Yao-cheng, Taipei Times
He finished just ahead of Oleg Verniaiev of Ukraine on 15.033 points and Tomomasa Hasegawa of Japan on 14.591.
Hsu Ping-chien (徐秉謙), the other Taiwanese entry, finished seventh as artistic gymnastics concluded yesterday.
Local fans and sports officials lauded Lee’s success, with it being the nation’s second gold in gymnastics at all Universiades.
Photo: Huang Yao-cheng, Taipei Times
“It is a dream come true for me to win the gold medal today,” Lee said. “I want to thank my family and many other people for supporting me.”
“All credit goes to my coaches,” he said. “Without them, I would not be here today.”
A native of Yilan County, the 21-year-old Lee is a student at National Taiwan Sport University in Taoyuan.
Photo: CNA
As a boy, he was among seven gymnasts featured in the 2005 film Jump! Boys (翻滾吧!男孩) directed by Lin Yu-hsien (林育賢), which won best documentary at the Golden Horse Awards.
The documentary followed the efforts of an elementary school’s gymnastics team in Yilan County’s Luodong Township (羅東) under the tutelage of coach Lin Yu-hsin (林育信), the director’s elder brother.
"It has been 15 years since the documentary and finally we see Lee winning gold,” Lin Yu-hsien said. “His success had been built upon persistent effort over the years and a huge amount of blood and sweat.”
"He deserves all the accolades," Lin Yu-hsien said.
Yilan County Acting Commissioner Wu Tze-cheng (吳澤成) wrote a congratulatory message, saying he is proud of Lee, a boy from Yilan achieving glory for Taiwan by winning the nation’s first gold in pommel horse at a Universiade.
Wu invited people to watch Jump! Boys, which is to be shown again in theaters in October.
In the rings event, Artur Tovmasyan won the first gold for Armenia, while Canada’s Brittany Rogers was first overall in women’s vault final.
In the men’s floor exercise, Kirill Prokopev of Russia claimed gold, with second and third going to Kim Han-sol of South Korea and Wataru Tanigawa of Japan respectively.
Taiwan’s Tang Chia-hung (唐嘉鴻) was fourth.
Taiwan got another medal in archery, with Chen Yi-hsuan (陳怡瑄) winning silver in the women’s compound individual event.
Liu Wei-ting (劉威廷) took the bronze in the men’s 80kg taekwondo.
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