Taiwanese women continued their good showing at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro on Monday, with weightlifter Kuo Hsing-chun (郭婞淳) winning the nation’s third medal and three others reaching the quarter-finals at table tennis and tennis events.
Kuo won a bronze medal in the women’s 58kg division, but she said she was disappointed by her performance.
Having won the Asian Weightlifting Championships in late April by lifting a total of 238kg, Kuo was left in tears after lifting a total of 231kg in Rio de Janeiro, attributing her disappointing performance to nerves.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
“Nerves caused my body to be out of sync. It is all on me,” she said, adding that she had trouble with her technique rather than the weight itself. “In the past, the day before a competition, I needed to check my water intake, but this time I controlled everything very well.”
“Being in such good shape and then not having it show in the results” was hard to accept, she said.
“I did not do as well as I wanted,” she added. “I am very disappointed. I hope I can have a better result in the next Olympic Games. This medal does not meet my expectations, but I will keep doing my best and keep trying to attend competitions.”
Photo: CNA
She ranked eighth at the 2012 London Olympics.
Taiwan’s top female table tennis player, Cheng I-ching (鄭怡靜), won two matches on Monday, securing a spot in the women’s table tennis quarter-finals.
Cheng first faced 38-year-old Belarussian Viktoria Pavlovich, whose assortment of slices and effective defensive style initially confused the 24-year-old Taiwanese.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
However, Cheng found the patience to cope with Pavlovich’s approach, only to struggle late in the match before playing her best in the final game to ultimately win the match 7-11, 11-9, 11-7, 11-9, 8-11, 7-11, 11-2.
She then faced South Korean Suh Hyo-won, 29, for a spot in the final eight.
Cheng said Suh was an opponent who had given her trouble in the past, but sped to a 3-0 lead and was seemingly on her way to an easy victory when Suh changed strategies and went on the offensive. Cheng recovered after a timeout and defeated Suh 11-5, 11-9, 11-3, 4-11, 5-11, 9-11, 11-7.
She was scheduled to play Li Xiaoxia (李曉霞) of China in the quarter-finals yesterday.
Li won gold in the women’s singles at the 2012 London Olympics.
On the tennis court, the third-seeded sister pairing of Chan Hao-ching (詹皓晴) and Chan Yung-jan (詹詠然) beat British pair Johanna Konta and Heather Watson 3-6, 6-0, 6-4 to advance to the women’s doubles quarter-finals.
They are to face Martina Hingis and Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland in the quarter-finals tomorrow.
After three full days of competitions in Rio de Janeiro, Taiwan was one of 20 nations to have won a gold medal and one of 13 nations to have won at least three medals.
Prior to Kuo’s bronze on Monday, Taiwanese athletes won a weightlifting gold medal in the women’s 53kg division and a bronze medal in the women’s team event in archery on Sunday.
WAITING GAME: The US has so far only offered a ‘best rate tariff,’ which officials assume is about 15 percent, the same as Japan, a person familiar with the matter said Taiwan and the US have completed “technical consultations” regarding tariffs and a finalized rate is expected to be released soon, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference yesterday, as a 90-day pause on US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs is set to expire today. The two countries have reached a “certain degree of consensus” on issues such as tariffs, nontariff trade barriers, trade facilitation, supply chain resilience and economic security, Lee said. They also discussed opportunities for cooperation, investment and procurement, she said. A joint statement is still being negotiated and would be released once the US government has made
NEW GEAR: On top of the new Tien Kung IV air defense missiles, the military is expected to place orders for a new combat vehicle next year for delivery in 2028 Mass production of Tien Kung IV (Sky Bow IV) missiles is expected to start next year, with plans to order 122 pods, the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) latest list of regulated military material showed. The document said that the armed forces would obtain 46 pods of the air defense missiles next year and 76 pods the year after that. The Tien Kung IV is designed to intercept cruise missiles and ballistic missiles to an altitude of 70km, compared with the 60km maximum altitude achieved by the Missile Segment Enhancement variant of PAC-3 systems. A defense source said yesterday that the number of
‘CRUDE’: The potential countermeasure is in response to South Africa renaming Taiwan’s representative offices and the insistence that it move out of Pretoria Taiwan is considering banning exports of semiconductors to South Africa after the latter unilaterally downgraded and changed the names of Taiwan’s two representative offices, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. On Monday last week, the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation unilaterally released a statement saying that, as of April 1, the Taipei Liaison Offices in Pretoria and Cape Town had been renamed the “Taipei Commercial Office in Johannesburg” and the “Taipei Commercial Office in Cape Town.” Citing UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, it said that South Africa “recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the sole
Taiwanese exports to the US are to be subject to a 20 percent tariff starting on Thursday next week, according to an executive order signed by US President Donald Trump yesterday. The 20 percent levy was the same as the tariffs imposed on Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh by Trump. It was higher than the tariffs imposed on Japan, South Korea and the EU (15 percent), as well as those on the Philippines (19 percent). A Taiwan official with knowledge of the matter said it is a "phased" tariff rate, and negotiations would continue. "Once negotiations conclude, Taiwan will obtain a better
RSS