Taiwan's men archery team won the silver medal yesterday after being defeated by South Korea by seven points, 244-251, in the finals of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.
Earlier in the day the team had beaten the US 244-243 to advance to the finals.
PHOTO: AP
The baseball team, however, had little to feel happy about after losing to Japan 4-3 in overtime.
But it was a very different story at the Panathinaiko Stadium, the home of the first modern Games in 1896 and the venue for archery at this year's Olympics.
"We are in excellent condition, and our archers just act consistently according to the tempo set during their practices, and ignore other external factors, even our opponents," said archery team coach Lin Cheng-hsien (林政賢).
To stabilize the athletes' mindset and avoid last-minute collapses, Lin repeatedly reminded his archers to "trust your-self, believe in yourself."
The three young archers, 23-year-old Chen Szu-yuan (陳詩園), 19-year-old Liu Ming-huang (劉明煌) and 17-year-old Wang Cheng-pang (王正邦), did not perform well at the beginning of the match, but suc-ceeded in dealing with the pressure and reviving their fighting spirit.
The crucial point in the competition was in the third round, when the US fell three points behind the Taiwan team. Wang and Liu secured an unassailable lead by scoring 28 points with their last three shots.
Meanwhile, the baseball team played a good game against Japan's professional all-stars, which has been described as the strongest team among the eight teams in competition.
Both Taiwan's starting pitcher Wang Chien-ming (王建民), who plays on the Yankee's triple A team, and Japanese starter Koji Uehara, who plays for the Tokyo Giants, suppressed batters in the first two innings.
In the third inning, Chen Chin-feng (
Both teams were runless for the next three innings.
Wang gave up four hits in the seventh, including Yoshinobu Takahashi's two-run homer which tied the game. Tsao Chin-hui (曹錦輝), who plays in Colorado Rockies, then replaced Wang on the pitcher's mound and struck out Norihiro Nakamura to end the inning.
Neither team was able to score in the eighth and ninth innings and the game went into overtime.
In the top of the tenth, Cheng Chang-ming (鄭昌明) hit a single off of Japan's closer Hiroki Kuroda and advanced to second base on Chen Chih-yuan's (陳致遠) sacrifice bunt.
But Taiwan failed to capitalize and the inning ended when Peng Cheng-min (彭政閩) struckout.
In the bottom of tenth, Japan got the bases loaded with just one out, and Michihiro Ogasawara hit a flyball to deep left field off closer Yang Chien-fu (
"The whole team performed their best," said head coach Hsu Sheng-min (
With two wins and four losses, Taiwan's only hope of making it into the semifinals is if it beats the Netherlands today and Australia loses its two last games.
Also See Stories:
Pinsent and crew take rowing honors
Tennis medal hopefuls fight today
Japan celebrates record Judo gold medal haul: 8
Doping spoils the Olympic party for Greece and Russia
LONG FLIGHT: The jets would be flown by US pilots, with Taiwanese copilots in the two-seat F-16D variant to help familiarize them with the aircraft, the source said The US is expected to fly 10 Lockheed Martin F-16C/D Block 70/72 jets to Taiwan over the coming months to fulfill a long-awaited order of 66 aircraft, a defense official said yesterday. Word that the first batch of the jets would be delivered soon was welcome news to Taiwan, which has become concerned about delays in the delivery of US arms amid rising military tensions with China. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the initial tranche of the nation’s F-16s are rolling off assembly lines in the US and would be flown under their own power to Taiwan by way
OBJECTS AT SEA: Satellites with synthetic-aperture radar could aid in the detection of small Chinese boats attempting to illegally enter Taiwan, the space agency head said Taiwan aims to send the nation’s first low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite into space in 2027, while the first Formosat-8 and Formosat-9 spacecraft are to be launched in October and 2028 respectively, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council laid out its space development plan in a report reviewed by members of the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee. Six LEO satellites would be produced in the initial phase, with the first one, the B5G-1A, scheduled to be launched in 2027, the council said in the report. Regarding the second satellite, the B5G-1B, the government plans to work with private contractors
‘OF COURSE A COUNTRY’: The president outlined that Taiwan has all the necessary features of a nation, including citizens, land, government and sovereignty President William Lai (賴清德) discussed the meaning of “nation” during a speech in New Taipei City last night, emphasizing that Taiwan is a country as he condemned China’s misinterpretation of UN Resolution 2758. The speech was the first in a series of 10 that Lai is scheduled to give across Taiwan. It is the responsibility of Taiwanese citizens to stand united to defend their national sovereignty, democracy, liberty, way of life and the future of the next generation, Lai said. This is the most important legacy the people of this era could pass on to future generations, he said. Lai went on to discuss
MISSION: The Indo-Pacific region is ‘the priority theater,’ where the task of deterrence extends across the entire region, including Taiwan, the US Pacific Fleet commander said The US Navy’s “mission of deterrence” in the Indo-Pacific theater applies to Taiwan, Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Stephen Koehler told the South China Sea Conference on Tuesday. The conference, organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), is an international platform for senior officials and experts from countries with security interests in the region. “The Pacific Fleet’s mission is to deter aggression across the Western Pacific, together with our allies and partners, and to prevail in combat if necessary, Koehler said in the event’s keynote speech. “That mission of deterrence applies regionwide — including the South China Sea and Taiwan,” he
RSS