Taiwanese athletes consolidated fourth place on the medals table at the East Asian Games in Tianjin, China, as they picked up another three gold medals in gymnastics, karate and basketball late on Sunday and yesterday.
In the artistic gymnastics men’s rings competition, Chih Yu-chen scored 15.450 to claim gold on Sunday, while in karate, Yen Tzu-yao picked up the gold in the men’s under-75kg category yesterday.
Taiwan also picked up two silver medals in karate — Tang Wei-chieh in the men’s under-67kg category and Chien Cheng-kuan in the men’s under-60kg — as well as three bronze — Fan Sheng-yen in the men’s over-84kg, Wen Tzu-yun in the women’s under-55kg and Chao Jou in the women’s under-68kg category.
Photo: EPA
In tennis, Huang Liang-chi picked up silver in the men’s singles, while Peng Hsien-yin claimed the bronze. In the women’s singles, the silver went to Chan Chin-wei, while Lee Ya-hsuan took home the bronze.
In soft tennis, the men’s team — Lin Sheng-fa, Lin Shih-chun, Lin Yu-tse, Yang Sheng-fa and Yu Kai-wen — won the silver medal, while the women’s team — Chang Wen-hsin, Chen Yi-chia, Cheng Chu-ling, Chiang Wan-chi and Li Chih-yi — picked up the bronze.
In cycling, Hsiao Shih-hsin took the bronze medal in the men’s 1km time trial, while Huang Ting-ying claimed bronze in the women’s individual pursuit.
Photo: EPA
There was also a bronze medal for Ping Chien-hsu in the artistic gymnastics after a score of 14.350 on the men’s pommel horse.
In judo, Xiang Ting-qiu got the bronze in the women’s under-48kg category, as did Ming Yen-tsai in the men’s under-60kg and Chia Hung-chien in the men’s under-66kg.
At press time, China led the medals table with 126 golds, ahead of Japan with 41 and South Korea with 33. Taiwan were in fourth with 17 gold, 25 silver and 44 bronze.
BASKETBALL
By Paul Huang
Contributing reporter
Taiwan rebounded from a double-digit second-half deficit to outscore China 26-20 in the decisive fourth quarter to pocket the gold in men’s basketball at the East Asian Games yesterday afternoon.
It was the third time that Taiwan have won the top honor in the six editions of the event in which they have participated, adding to their victories over South Korea in 1997 and 2005.
The win gave the Islanders a perfect 5-0 record this year after they stormed through the preliminaries with a 3-0 record and topped Japan in a convincing 103-74 win to face China in the title game.
Keh Chi-hao’s three-pointer in the closing seconds gave the Islanders a two-point lead and Tseng Wen-ting followed with a clutch free-throw to help the visitors pull off the upset win over the hosts.
Also starring for Taiwan were Lin “the Beast” Chih-chieh, who netted a team-high 21 points, and Quincy Davis, who turned in his second double-double outing in as many days with 13 points and 13 rebounds.
BASEBALL
By Paul Huang
Contributing reporter
Holding the hosts scoreless over the course of a rain-delayed contest, Taiwan blanked China 4-0 in their bronze-medal baseball game at the Tianjin Sports Center’s Baseball Field yesterday morning to end the competition on a high note.
The win not only salvaged what had been a disappointing tournament for the Islanders, in which they squandered a 4-0 start in the preliminaries — including an stunning 11-0 shutout win over favored Japan — with three straight losses that denied them a berth in the title game, but also avenged a tough loss to China in the first match.
Starter Luo Hua-wei dominated from the beginning with six scoreless innings of four-hit ball and seven strikeouts to deny the China batters before his successor, Kuo Jung-lin, followed with three equally effective innings of one-hit ball with six strikeouts to keep the shutout intact.
“We didn’t get the gold, which is what we came here for, but we are still satisfied with what we have accomplished,” Taiwan coach Lu Ming-tsu said after the game.
Offensively for the Islanders, Hsiao Po-ting’s two-out double with two on base saw both runners score in the top of the fourth to break a scoreless tie after China’s starter silenced Taiwan’s batters with three tremendous innings of no-hit ball.
Leading by two, Taiwan tacked on a run in the seventh and the ninth for some insurance off China ace Li Xin, who won the first meeting between the two squads in the preliminaries with an unbelievable relief appearance.
JAPAN 4, SOUTH KOREA 2
Japan doubled up on South Korea in a convincing triumph to claim the gold in this year’s tournament.
It is the first time that the sport has been included in the regional competition.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier