Tang Chia-hung’s (唐嘉鴻) efforts on the horizontal bar added to Taiwan’s surge in artistic gymnastics as they moved to second in the medal tally in that discipline at the Summer Universiade in Naples, Italy, on Sunday.
Tang battled a foot injury to grab gold in the men’s event, edging Milad Karimi of Kazakhstan and Ivan Stretovich of Russia.
“It is a swingful and fluid routine, and suddenly we are seeing gymnasts really deliver,” commentators said as Tang dismounted to await the judges.
The judges gave him a score of 14.700, prompting celebrations with teammates and coaches as he went past Karimi (14.675) and Stretovich (14.600).
“I would like to thank National Taiwan Normal University for giving me such a good environment, so I have peace of mind while training,” Tang wrote on Facebook yesterday.
“All the fans of the team, your support is an indispensable driving force for our progress, thank you all,” he wrote.
It was Taiwan’s second gold medal in gymnastics in Italy after Lee Chih-kai (李智凱) won gold earlier on Sunday in the men’s pommel horse.
Lee also took bronze in the men’s all-round event on Saturday, while their silver came in the men’s team event, with Tang, Lee and Hsu Ping-chien’s (徐秉謙) efforts on Thursday last week.
The overall medal count on Sunday had Taiwan with four gold, five silver and three bronze. That put them seventh overall and second for artistic gymnastics with two gold, one silver and one bronze. Japan were the only nation ahead of Taiwan in artistic gymnastics with seven gold, two silver and three bronze.
It is the best showing Taiwan has had in artistic gymnastics at a Universiade since the 2005 Games in Izmir, Turkey.
Taiwanese taekwondo athlete Su Chia-en (蘇佳恩) grabbed silver in the women’s individual poomsae — the nation’s first medal in the sport this year — with a total score of 6.99.
The college senior told the Central News Agency by telephone that she was nervous performing her routine, as it has been a long time since her previous individual competition.
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