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Asian Games: Men win silver, women take bronze

The Taiwan women's soft tennis team poses for a photo yesterday at the Asian Games in Doha, Qatar. The team defeated China to take the bronze medal. PHOTO: WANG YI-SUNG, TAIPEI TIMES

Taiwan's men's soft tennis team lost to Japan in the gold medal match at the Asian Games late yesterday.

The team had qualified for the final by dispatching their Mongolian opponents earlier.

The doubles team of Li Chia-hung (李佳鴻) and Yang Sheng-fa (楊勝發) won their match in five sets, while singles player Wang Chun-yan (王俊彥) emerged victorious after six. The women's team had a tougher time in their quarter-final match losing to South Korea, but went on to defeat China in the finals to take the bronze.

With yesterday's victories, the Taiwan team still has a chance to take home the two gold medals in soft tennis that the National Council on Physical Fitness and Sports has projected that they will.

Taiwan's powerhouse table tennis duo, Chuang "First Brother" Chih-yuan (莊智淵) and Huang "First Sister" Yi-hua (黃智樺), also scored a victory yesterday, defeating the Macau team in just 10 minutes. The doubles match went so quickly that much of the media didn't even get a chance to film it. Chang and Huang are heavy gold medal favorites and will go on to face Japan in the final 16.

The other Taiwan team of Chiang Peng-lung (蔣澎龍) and Lu Wu-feng (陸雲鳳) were eliminated by North Korea.

Meanwhile, Taiwan weightlifter Wang "Little Giant" Hsin-yuan's (王信淵) trip to the games ended in frustration when he failed to lift the 159kg bar within the allotted time. While preparing for his second attempt after failing his first try with the weight, Wang didn't notice how much time he had left and lost his chance. He left in a huff, blaming his Russian coach for not reminding him of the time.

His fifth place finish will mark the first time he returns from the Asian games empty handed.

The women's volleyball team bounced back from their first round defeat to South Korea to beat Vietnam yesterday four-to-one for their first win of the tournament. The match started shakily with Vietnam taking the first set, but the Taiwan team came back to take the next four in a row, led by 18 points from forward Chen Mei-ching (陳美靜) and 17 points from forward Chen Shu-li (陳淑俐).

The Taiwan team will face China on Wednesday.

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