Taiwan’s Lin Wei-chun (林唯均) and Lo Chia-ling (羅嘉翎) yesterday both won silver medals after losing in the finals of their respective weight classes in the taekwondo competition at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.
Twenty-year-old Lin, competing in the women’s under-53kg category, lost the final 2-1 to Park Hye-jin of South Korea.
Earlier in the day, Lin posted impressive wins over opponents from Lebanon, China and Uzbekistan to reach the final.
Photo: Reuters
After the final, Lin said she was so close to taking gold, but admitted to slacking off in the last few seconds and allowing her opponent to take the lead in the final round.
She said she was nevertheless happy about the result, which exceeded her initial expectations.
Lin, who is 1.8m tall, started learning taekwondo while still at elementary school, encouraged by her mother, Liu Chao-ching (劉昭晴), who competed at national level and won three Asian Games gold medals during her career.
Photo: Reuters
Meanwhile, Tokyo Olympics medalist Lo suffered a two-round loss to China’s Luo Zongshi (駱宗詩) in the women’s under-57kg category.
Lo was dominated by her opponent throughout the final, taking only two points in the gold-medal bout.
The 21-year-old Taiwanese won a silver medal at the World Taekwondo Championships in Azerbaijan in May and at the World University Games in Chengdu, China, in July.
In the preliminary round of the softball competition Taiwan defeated Singapore 12-0, while the men’s rugby sevens team were beaten 19-12 by Singapore to finish in eighth place.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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