Taiwan took just the one silver medal in rowing after competition ended yesterday on the Nakdong River in Busan, South Korea, but it could lead to gold at the Beijing Olympics, the country's rowing association president said.
Though Taiwan did not win another medal in the five events it competed in yesterday, its silver-medal performance in the women's four-oars without coxswain the previous day was the cause of considerable optimism.
President of the Chi-nese Taipei Amateur Ro-wing Association Tony Ho (何湯雄) said rowing was a sport that naturally suited Tai-wan, with its tradition of dragon boat racing and plentiful rivers.
"We had a chance but to get the silver is, like, wow. It's the first time we've really won a medal to my mind because when we won the bronze in Bangkok there were only three teams to qualify for the final," Ho said.
"I am thinking about the 2008 Olympics and we have six years to prepare so there is a good chance for us to take a medal there. Why not?"
Ho also took some shots at the Chinese-language media which had written off Taiwan's rowing team and the Chairman of the National Council of Physical Fitness and Sports Lin Te-fu (林德福), who had refused the rowing association's pleas for more support.
"We asked Te-fu for more support but he thought we had no chance. Now, I want to say, Te-fu, you were wrong and we proved it," he said.
Ho, who is also chairman of B&Q, the home improvement store, said he had plans to develop rowing through private investment, matched by government funds and in tandem with training programs and talent recruitment.
He said his first initiative would be to put up to 20 rowing machines in B & Q stores nationwide and offer training programs to those who showed they were physiologically suited to the event.
"Before sports guys were seen as very low class, not clever and made no money. But look, things are different now and sports can put food on the table.
"Also it's a fantastic way of developing our international status. As you know there are problems with this, with China, but sport is the best way of getting round it," Ho said.
"Think about it, if the Keelung River had hundreds of boats rowing on it on a weekend it would be beautiful. We should encourage this."
International rowing federation umpire, Mike Tanner agreed. Unlike softball, he said -- which may be cut from the Olympics -- rowing was one of the original Olympic sports and was unlikely to fall by the wayside.
"Taiwan has made great strides in this sport and it's good to see. Especially in the lightweight class [59kg for women, 72kg for men], Taiwan could do well."
"These categories are very suitable for the sporting build in the Asian region and there's no reason they can't compete successfully," Tanner said.
"A silver medal here is very good value. They competed in Hiroshima [at the Asian Games] eight years ago and were in Bangkok four years ago. They are moving on very quickly and obviously putting more resources into it.
"A certain level of commitment and funding is needed if you are going to get results and that's happening. The new president of the rowing federation is obviously very keen and is doing what he can to spread the word and develop the sport in Chinese Taipei."
"The general public needs to see this and now that it has some solid success it will get the kids involved," Tanner said.
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