Taiwan bagged three more bronze medals in the Deaflympics yesterday after athletes representing the nation excelled in the finals of the men’s 4x100m relay, the women’s 10m air pistol shooting, as well as women’s tennis singles.
The 4x100m relay team — Lo Sheng-tang, Shih Yen-hung, Tu Wei-hsuan and Wang Shih-wei — finished third in 42.79 seconds, which broke their personal best of 43.70 seconds set in Turkey last year. Their coach, Huang Ma-long, told reporters at the press conference after the race that the 4x100m relay was deemed as one of the events in which Taiwan had a good chance of a medal. He also explained the rationale behind the order of the runners.
“Lo, the first one, has to set the speed, because it may affect the morale of the team,” Huang said. “Shih, the second one, is the fastest among the four and he set a national record by finishing in 11.25 seconds. Tu, the third one, has to be able to run fast through the turn. Wang, the tallest one, was charged to be on the last leg because of his finishing skill.”
PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Huang had difficulties training the athletes for the Games.
“Three of them came to the training with injuries that did not fully recover until last month,” Huang said. “I was frustrated sometimes, knowing that I could not do the kind of intensive training I wanted. If we can train for a whole year before the 2013 Athens Deaflympics, we might have a chance of gold.”
Meanwhile, Kao Ya-ju secured third place and a bronze medal in the 10m air pistol shooting by scoring 465.4 points in the final. She won qualification to the final by scoring 369 points.
“I was really nervous at the qualifier, really nervous,” Kao said.
Kao’s coach, Chang Shu-fong, said it was natural that Kao was anxious because she had never participated in an international event before.
“I told her to ignore other people and concentrate on the target lane, that should be her whole world,” Chang said.
Chang said Kao did not take up shooting until one-and-a-half years ago, when she and a friend joined a shooting camp at the Taoyuan Gongsi Shooting Range. Chang said Kao has all the attributes to be a great athlete.
“She always follows instructions. If you tell her to put down the pistol two seconds after shooting, she will do it,” Chang said, adding that Kao was a tenacious fighter as well.
Kao also won a silver in the 25m air pistol last week.
After a tough battle in women’s tennis doubles on Saturday, 47-year-old Ho Chiu-mei went on to defeat her Japanese opponent Yachiyo Abe 7-5, 6-3 and nail a bronze in the singles.
Because of rain this morning, the organizers announced that all the tennis matches would be held at Taoyuan Sports University instead of the Rainbow Riverside Sports Park. The last-minute switch of venue did not seem to affect Ho’s performance.
“I am really happy,” Ho said. “This is my last match at the Deaflympics and I was trying to do everything I could to make sure that I won.”
Ho said she wanted to dedicate the medal to her supervisor at work, who has been hospitalized for cancer treatment.
Both Ho’s sister, Ho Chiu-hsiang, and first lady Chou Mei-chin traveled to Taoyuan to show their support.
In table tennis, Wen Chih-hsuan and Yang Jung-Tsung both managed to to reach the last 32 of the men’s singles yesterday. Both beat their opponents within about 10 minutes. Their coach, Huang Mei-chen, said she was concerned about an injury to Wen’s knee and the strategy had been to finish yesterday’s matches as quickly as possible.
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