Taiwanese badminton duo Lee Yang (李洋) and Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) yesterday won the nation’s first Olympic gold medal in the sport when they prevailed over a third-seeded Chinese pair in the final of the men’s doubles at the Tokyo Olympics.
Lee and Wang, both first-time Olympians, defeated Liu Yuchen (劉雨辰) and Li Junhui (李俊慧) 21-18, 21-12 in a 34-minute final at the Musashino Forest Sports Plaza.
As of yesterday, Taiwan had bagged seven medals in Tokyo — two golds, two silvers and three bronzes — topping its previous best of five medals in 2000 and 2004.
Photo: AFP
Taiwan moved to No. 17 in the medals count on the Tokyo Olympics Web site.
China, Japan and the US placed first, second and third respectively.
Earlier, Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎) knocked India’s Pusarla V. Sindhu out of the women’s singles semi-finals in a clash between two of badminton’s best players.
Photo: EPA-EFE
In the first game, which world No. 1 Tai won 21-18 against Rio de Janeiro silver medalist and seventh-ranked Pusarla, the pair were evenly matched.
However, Tai picked up the pace in the second game, finishing Pusarla off 21-12 in 19 minutes.
“I reduced my mistakes and therefore didn’t have as much pressure on me,” Tai said, adding that she was not yet nervous about playing in today’s final against China’s second-ranked Chen Yufei (陳雨菲), but probably would be just before the match.
“I need to go back and relax and prepare for tomorrow, because it’s not over yet,” Pusarla said, with her eye on bronze in a match against China’s He Bingjiao (何冰嬌).
Chen overcame teammate He in the other semi-final in a battle of wills that the former won 21-16, 13-21, 21-12 and celebrated with a roar.
Earlier on Saturday, 34-year-old Kevin Cordon, who at age 12 moved from rural Zacapa in Guatemala to the capital city to pursue his dreams of reaching the Olympics, crushed South Korea’s Heo Kwang-hee 21-13, 21-18 to make the semi-finals.
Cordon, who ranks 59th in the world, has a shot at winning Guatemala’s second-ever Olympic medal.
“I play really hard with my heart. I don’t think, I just play,” said an exhilarated, red-eyed Cordon, who fell to the floor and curled up sobbing at the end of the match.
“It’s not easy for us as a country — there are more important things in Guatemala to support than sport,” said Cordon, who is named after England soccer great Kevin Keegan. “That’s our reality.”
Cordon faces Denmark’s world No. 2 Viktor Axelsen, who beat China’s Shi Yuqi (石宇奇) 21-13, 21-13.
Denmark’s Anders Antonsen was knocked out in the quarter-finals 21-18, 15-21, 21-18 by Anthony Sinisuka Ginting of Indonesia.
Ginting next meets China’s Chen Long (諶龍), who beat Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen (周天成) 21-14, 9-21, 21-14 with a tight net game and sharp smashes.
CLOSED FOR DISINFECTION: Two of the three local cases were linked to a cluster infection at a kindergarten, while the other case works at a McDonald’s restaurant The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported three new local COVID-19 infections and 11 imported cases, but no deaths. The local cases are two men and a woman aged between 20 and 80 who reside in Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan, the CECC said in a news release. Two of them are linked to a cluster infection at a kindergarten in New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋), said Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is the CECC’s spokesman. He said they are both associated with the mother of a kindergarten student, who was earlier confirmed to have
BIOLOGICAL AGENT: A containment exercise was held in southern Tainan, in response to a mock assault where troops were assumed to be attacked by bioweapons The live-fire component of this year’s annual Han Kuang military exercises, Taiwan’s major war games involving all military branches, began yesterday morning and is to run until Friday to test the armed forces’ capability to fend off a Chinese invasion. The 37th edition of the annual event officially began after the Ministry of National Defense’s Joint Operations Command Center, also known as the Hengshan Command Center, announced the initiation of the five-day live-fire drills. Yesterday’s drills were focused on testing the military’s preservation and maintenance of combat capabilities in the event of a full-scale Chinese invasion. As part of the drills, air force
‘RAISING TAIWAN’S VISIBILITY’: Premier Su Tseng-chang said changing TECRO’s name to include ‘Taiwan’ would make the representative office more recognizable The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday declined comment on a Financial Times report that the name of Taiwan’s representative office in Washington might be changed, saying only that bolstering and upgrading ties with the US has been the government’s long-term objective. The ministry made the comments after the UK-based newspaper reported on that US President Joe Biden’s administration is considering allowing the government to use the word “Taiwan” in the office’s title. The US is “seriously considering a request from Taiwan to change the name of its mission in the US capital from ‘Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office’ [TECRO] to ‘Taiwan
WELCOME BACK: Foreign spouses or minor children of Taiwanese can now directly apply for a visa with representative offices overseas, the CECC said Regulations on applications for entry to the nation by foreign spouses or minor children of Taiwanese have been relaxed effective immediately, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday, as it reported two new local and three imported cases of COVID-19. Deputy Minister of the Interior Chen Tsung-yen (陳宗彥), deputy head of the center, said the relaxation meant that such applications would be treated as general cases, instead of special ones that are reviewed on a case-by-case basis. “Considering the recent local COVID-19 situation and the needs of foreign spouses and children to visit their family in Taiwan, we are allowing Taiwan’s
RSS