Even without world No. 35 Lu Yen-hsun (盧彥勳), who suffered a back injury on Sunday, Yang Tsung-hua (楊宗樺), Yi Chu-huan (易楚寰) and Chen Ti (陳迪) overcame the setback to win the gold medal in the men’s team tennis yesterday, Taiwan’s first ever men’s tennis gold at an Asian Games.
In the final showdown, Taiwan beat Uzbekistan and its world No. 40 star Denis Istomin 2-1, winning one of the two singles and the decisive doubles, to clinch the country’s third gold medal at the games in Guangzhou, China.
With Yang likely to lose to Istomin in one of the singles, Chen entered yesterday under pressure to win his singles match. Based on his patchy form this year that has caused his ranking to plummet to No. 525, that was not a given.
PHOTO: AFP
He pulled through with a surprisingly comfortable 6-2, 6-4 win over the 467th-ranked Murad Inoyatov.
In the women’s team competition, Taiwan was unable to defend the gold medal it won at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, losing to China 2-0.
Taiwan’s Chang Kai-chen (張凱貞) succumbed to China’s Peng -Shuai (彭帥) 6-3, 7-5 in the first singles, while Chan Yung-jan (詹詠然) lost to world No. 11 Li Na (李娜) in the second singles 6-1, 6-1.
In other events yesterday, Taiwan’s Lai Hui-shan (賴慧珊) took the silver medal in the women’s six-red billiards final after she was defeated by China’s Chen Siming (陳思明) 4-0.
In the Wushu men’s Taijiquan/Taijijian, Taiwan’s Hsiao Yung-jih (蕭詠日) won the bronze medal. China’s Wu Yanan (吳雅楠) took the gold and Vietnam’s Nguyen Thanh took the silver.
In the men’s pommel horse, Taiwan’s Huang Che-kuei (黃哲奎) won the bronze medal.
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck off the southern coast of Mindanao in the Philippines at 7:38am today, prompting the US Tsunami Warning System to issue an alert for neighboring countries, including Taiwan. The system issued a purple alert indicating a "tsunami threat." The potential threat zone includes Taiwan, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Yap and Palau. Philippine authorities were assessing the damage from the quake, with the office of civil defense seeking to verifying initial reports that 15 people had been killed and 129 injured in the region, mostly from falling debris. Arlene Hollero, disaster chief of Maasim town in the Philippines' Sarangani Province,
‘GRAY ZONE’ PRESSURE: Beijing’s activities are intended to create the deceitful impression that China has jurisdiction over the area around Taiwan, the CGA said Taiwan’s rights over its territorial waters and exclusive economic zone must not be violated by any country, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday, adding that it will not accept any unprovoked actions. The council issued the remarks in response to the China Coast Guard conducting maritime enforcement drills near eastern Taiwan and claiming to fully exercise China’s maritime administrative law enforcement authority. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) has been closely monitoring the situation and is taking concrete steps to defend the nation’s sovereignty and secure its waters, the council said. China has no sovereign rights over the waters off eastern
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The National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology yesterday showcased its locally developed variants of the Vision 60 robotic patrol dog, which it plans to deploy on the nation’s outlying territories in the South China Sea. The variants were produced under the Joint Lab project — created by the institute and domestic companies — and assembled with domestically produced motors, lenses and artificial intelligence (AI) systems alongside licensed tech from the US, Missile and Rocket Systems Research Division deputy director Jen Kuo-kang (任國光) told the media event at a military base in Taipei’s Dazhi (大直) area. Taiwan has built up its strengths
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