Two of Taiwan's highly touted women's taekwondo competitors lived up to their billings on Thursday when they took gold and silver at the Asian Games.
Su Li-wen (
She eliminated her Jordanian opponent easily three to zero to advance into the semi-finals, where the match against a Nepalese opponent was called early after Su extended her lead to eight to one.
PHOTO: WANG YI-SUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
She narrowly defeated her Thai opponent Chonnapas Premwaew one to zero after steadily fending off a series of frenzied last-minute attacks in the third round to take the 63kg-division championship.
The gold was Su's first at a major international competition.
Her efforts at other tournaments this year had ended poorly, but she said she had worked to learn from the experience.
She discussed the mistakes with her coach to devise a new "controlled" approach for the Asian Games and put herself through a pounding workout routine.
Yang Shu-chun also turned in a strong performance in the 47kg division, taking home the silver medal after falling just short in the championship match.
She beat her Nepalese opponent five to two in the quarterfinals, then overcame her formidable Thai opponent -- winner of two international tournaments already this year -- with a one-to-zero victory in the semifinals.
However, she was upset in the finals by her old rival, China's Yu Jingyu, losing two to one.
Yu took the lead with one point in the first, but Yang came back to even the score with a kick to the abdomen with just 30 seconds left in the second.
Yu's second point late in the third round ultimately proved to be the difference in the match, as Yang was unable to mount a comeback in the time that was remaining.
The two had met three times before in previous competitions, with Yu winning the first two matches.
However Yang had beaten her easily a year before at the East Asian Games.
Those medals, combined with the baseball team's gold, catapulted Taiwan up to eighth place among 45 national teams for total number of medals.
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