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THE WORLD GAMES 2009 KAOHSIUNG: Bad defending hits hosts’ hopes

Taiwan’s Hsu Sui-huang performs his routine in the World Games men’s 80kg bodybuilding event at the Cultural Center Jhihde Hall in Kaohsiung yesterday. PHOTO: CHANG CHUNG-YI, TAIPEI TIMES

Ultimate frisbee may not be the purist’s idea of a sport, but that didn’t stop around 5,000 people from enjoying an exciting tie between Taiwan and Australia on the first day of ultimate action at the World Games Main Stadium yesterday evening.

Taiwan got off to the worst possible start, dropping the disc on their goal line straight away to give the Aussies an easy first point.

However, they picked themselves up and equalized almost immediately, then went on to forge a 5-4 lead on the strength of some long passes to speedy No. 5 Lee Lin-yi.

A time out then saw Australia switch to a zone defense strategy, with four players pressuring the thrower. This tactic paid off as some careless play by Taiwan saw Australia take a 7-5 lead into the break.

The second period saw Taiwan score quickly on an Aussie mistake to bring it back to 7-6, but loose defensive play saw Australia pull away to eventually take the match 13-9.

Taiwan’s Lo Wei-lin leads the contestants in the men’s 500m speed skating final at the World Games in Kaohsiung yesterday. PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUN, TAIPEI TIMES

For Taiwan, Lee was the star with six goals.

Earlier in the day, Taiwan had lost their opening match 13-7 to Japan.

Meanwhile, in the softball, Team Taiwan lost 1-2 to Japan in the semi-finals. This came after they had beaten South Korea 8-1 in their final preliminary game.

Over at Kaohsiung Normal University Gymnasium, Taiwan’s korfball team played their third preliminary match, which saw them earn a hard-fought 17-14 victory over Britain, giving them two wins out of three.

Yesterday’s medalists and finalists Bodybuilding Women’s Fitness Gold: Alevtyna Titarenko (Ukraine) Silver: Diana Almeida (Brazil) Bronze: Anna Mozolany-Urbanikova (Slovakia) Women’s Lightweight Gold: Jana Purdjakova (Slovakia) Silver: Alina Cepurniene (Lithuania) Bronze: Nataliia Dichkovska (Ukraine) Men’s Lightweight Gold: Kim Byung-soo (South Korea) Silver: Vyacheslav Makogon (Ukraine) Bronze: Masahiro Sue (Japan) Men’s Welterweight Gold: Boo Chang-soon (South Korea) Silver: Igor Kois (Slovakia) Bronze: Huang Chien-chih (Taiwan) Men’s Middleweight Gold: Beila Balog (Ukraine) Silver: Hsu Chung-huang (Taiwan) Bronze: Masashi Suzuki (Japan) Men’s Light-heavyweight Gold: Lee Jin-ho (South Korea) Silver: Luiz Sarmento (Brazil) Bronze: Mohamed Kotb (Egypt) Men’s Heavyweight Gold: Oleksandr Bilous (Ukraine) Silver: Kamal Abdulsalam Abdulrahman (Qatar) Bronze: Peter Tatarka (Slovakia) Roller Sports Speed Women’s 500m Sprint Gold: Huang Yu-ting (Taiwan) Silver: Lim Jin-seon (South Korea) Bronze: Yersi Puello (Colombia) Men’s 500m Sprint Gold: Andres Felipe Munoz (Colombia) Silver: Lo Wei-lin (Taiwan) Bronze: Lee Myung-kyu (South Korea) Sport Climbing Women’s Lead Gold: Maja Vidmar (Slovenia) Silver: Kim Ja-in (South Korea) Bronze: Caroline Ciavaldini (France) Men’s Lead Gold: Sachi Amma (Japan) Silver: Patxi Usobiaga Lacunza (Spain) Bronze: Romain Desgranges (France) Tug-of-War Indoor 520kg Gold: Taiwan Silver: Netherlands Bronze: Great Britain Tug-of-War Outdoor 640kg Gold: Switzerland Silver: Germany Bronze: Netherlands Orienteering Team Relay Gold: Russia Silver: Finland Bronze: Norway

The second day of sports climbing, meanwhile, saw Chuang Yeu-shiang fail to make it past the lead men’s semi-final stage.

On the sand at Siziwan, Taiwan’s ladies were eliminated from the beach handball after losing in the semi-final to Italy 10-13, 18-24.

The men, who lost in a shootout to Hungary in their final group game, were playing Croatia in the quarter-final. The match was still in play as of press time.

CPBL Yesterday’s results • Sinon Bulls 6, Uni-President Lions 4 • Brother Elephants 4, La New Bears 3 Also See: CPBL 20: Bulls rally to edge past Lions 8-7 in bottom of the ninth

In fistball, Taiwan were only playing for pride after already being eliminated, but were still beaten 4-11, 6-11, 2-11 by the Swiss. Switzerland beat Germany and will face Brazil in today’s final.

In the orienteering team mixed relay final at Chengching Lake, Russia won another gold.



■TOAST OF TAIWAN

By RICHARD HAZELDINE

STAFF REPORTER, IN KAOHSIUNG

Twenty-one-year-old Huang Yu-ting is the toast of Taiwan following her golden exploits in the speed skating at the World Games.

Huang, a third-year business student at Kaohsiung’s National Sun Yat-sen University, was crowned queen of the Yangming Skating Rink yesterday after winning gold in the 500m to add to the 1,000m title she won on Saturday and the 300m title she won on Friday. The medals helped propel Taiwan to second in the medal table.

As well as the three medals, Kaohsiung native Huang’s bank balance will look much healthier following her golden treble in her home town. Huang will be NT$6.96 million (US$212,000) richer after receiving NT$2.32 million for each of her gold medals.

A report in the Chinese-language Apple Daily said for each gold medal, she would receive cash from four different prize money funds, NT$900,000 from the Guo Guang fund, NT$1 million from the National Skating Association, NT$400,000 from the Kaohsiung City Government and NT$20,000 from the Executive Yuan.

Huang’s boyfriend is male skater Lo Wei-lin, who won silver in the men’s 500m yesterday and also won gold on Friday in the 300m race. So in the space of just one week, their financial situation is a lot healthier.

Huang, who took a break from her studies to concentrate on the Games, says she will go back to school after next year’s Asian Games.

Asked about his daughter success, Huang’s father, national skating coach Huang Jin-long, said: “She deserves it.”
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