World No. 3 Taiwanese karateka Wen Tzu-yun (文姿云) yesterday won a bronze medal in the women’s kumite 55kg category at the Tokyo Olympics, after falling to world No. 1 Anzhelika Terliuga in their semi-final.
Two minutes into the three-minute match, Wen and Terliuga each had one point, but Terliuga followed with a kick to Wen’s head eight seconds later, earning the Ukrainian three points.
With just one second on the clock, Wen landed a kick on Terliuga’s head, tying the score at 4-4.
Photo: AP
Olympic karate rules for ties say that the competitor who scored the first point is the winner.
However, as Wen and Terliuga were awarded their first point at the same time, the winner was determined by the judges, with Terliuga emerging victorious.
Despite the loss, Wen won bronze because in Olympic kumite, the athletes defeated in the semi-finals do not fight.
Photo: AP
Bulgaria’s Ivet Goranova, who Wen lost to in their Group A bout, defeated Terliuga to win the gold.
Wen beat Sara Bahmanyar of Iran and Serap Ozcelik Arapoglu of Turkey in her other group matches.
Austria’s Bettina Plank took home the other bronze.
With Wen’s bronze, Taiwan have 12 medals — two gold, four silver and six bronze — at the Tokyo Games, the nation’s best-ever haul.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) congratulated Wen on Facebook.
A few years ago, she had seen Wen exert herself and shine at the Asian Games, Tsai wrote, adding that she also met Wen several times on visits to the National Sports Training Center in Kaohsiung.
“We are all proud of you,” Tsai wrote.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central