Cyclist Hsiao Mei-yu (蕭美玉) won Taiwan’s first medal at the Asian Games yesterday morning in Guangzhou, finishing with a bronze in the women’s 500m time trial, with Chen Wei-ling (陳葦綾) taking another medal for Taiwan in weightlifting.
Hsiao earned Taiwan’s first medal in a time of 35.440 seconds. Hong Kong’s Lee Wai-sze (李慧詩) won gold with 33.945 seconds, while Guo Shuang (郭爽) of China won silver.
Hsiao was a silver medalist in the same category at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, Qatar.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
Lee’s victory caused an upset in the opening event of the track cycling, after she snatched victory from defending champion and favorite Guo.
The 29-year-old Lee, the top ranked track cyclist in the time trial, individual sprint, keirin and team sprint disciplines, set a new Asian record of 33.945 seconds at the Guangzhou velodrome.
“I have been longing for this medal,” Lee said. “I have been turning in good performances on a daily basis in training.”
Bronze medalist Hsiao said she was delighted with having set a personal best, but was slightly put out given how good the track had raced.
“I didn’t let my coach down. I’m happy to get a medal,” she said. “The first time I saw my result, I was a little bit disappointed, but after seeing Kim Wong-yeong’s result [35.801 seconds], I thought I might be able to get a different medal.”
There was disappointment for Japanese teenager Kayono Maeda, ranked third in the world in the discipline by the sport’s governing body, as she could only manage 36.033 seconds.
Taiwan’s second bronze of the Games came in the weightlifting yesterday afternoon.
Chinese weightlifting great Wang Mingjuan (王明娟) defended her Asian Games title in the under-48kg class, producing two Games records to set up a straightvictory.
The four-time world champion dating back to 2002 snatched a punishing 95kg, smashing the Asian Games record of 90kg.
The 25-year-old then went on to clean and jerk 115kg to add 4kg to her own aggregate record of 206kg set at the 2006 Doha Games.
Wang easily achieved her first clean and jerk at 110kg, but Taiwan’s Chen failed on two attempts at 110kg, guaranteeing Pensiri Laosirikul of Thailand silver by 1kg after the Thai lifter managed a best of 109kg.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
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