Taiwan had reason to smile on the second day of the 21st Deaflympics after bagging one gold, two silvers and a bronze in martial arts.
The wins brought the nation’s overall medal standing to third place behind Russia and Ukraine, with a total of five medals.
Considered a shoo-in before the Games started, Lu Szu-jou (呂思柔) clinched the nation’s second gold medal by winning the women’s taekwondo under-57kg category after beating her Latvian foe Laura Gaile 7-0 in the final.
PHOTO: CNA
She had an easy win against Canadian Renee Pardy in her first match, but struggled hard in her second bout against Puerto Rico’s Aurora Roma. The two locked horns for four intense rounds, the maximum number of rounds permissible. At the end, the judges declared Lu the winner, allowing her to advance.
Lu’s performance brought some members of the audience — and some reporters — to tears, but coach Chou Kuei-ming (周桂名) said she had not done her best.
“I was really nervous in the sudden death round, but I was afraid of disappointing my family and the fans,” Lu said.
Teammate Lin Bo-chong (林柏聰) won a silver in the men’s under 68kg category after losing to South Korea’s Kim Min-jae, but Chou said Lin’s chance of gold was blocked by the judges’ “unfair calls.”
Chou said Kim fell several times during the round, but the judges didn’t subtract any points from him.
“If the judges had done so, I strongly believe Lin would have been the winner. He outperformed his opponent. Lin is on pain medication right now because of a foot injury but he still competed. That’s how tenacious an athlete he is,” the coach said.
Lin did not want to elaborate on Chou’s comments. He said he was honored to have won a medal for his country, but he hinted this might be his last major world competition given that he would be 31 by the 2013 Games in Athens.
Meanwhile, Tai Wen-chi (戴文祺) won Taiwan’s second silver medal, losing to Takahiro Kojima of Japan 2-4 in the karate under-67kg category. The two were neck-and-neck in the final round and were tied 1-1 one minute before the end.
In the last minute, Kojima delivered a straight blow to Tai’s head, knocking him down and picking up three points.
Tai won another point in the final 24 seconds, but to no avail.
In the under-75kg category, Huang Chi-yang (黃棋煬) took home the nation’s first bronze medal after losing 3-6 to France’s Michael Menant and 3-5 to Venezuela’s Omar Velis.
Taiwan’s badminton team beat the British squad 3-2 in Group A. In the afternoon, Taiwan trumped Group C’s team Kazakhstan 3-0, securing a place in the final four.
Taiwan’s handball team’s 37-27 win against Turkey raised its chances of being in the final four if Turkey lose to Germany, the 2005 champions, in today’s match.
Two new 100m men’s butterfly world records were set yesterday — Russian Ilya Trishkin swam 0:54.92 in the men’s heats and Italian Luca Germano swam 0:56.47 in the women’s heats.
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