Taiwanese Olympic badminton men’s doubles gold medalist Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) and his new partner, Chiu Hsiang-chieh (邱相榤), clinched the men’s doubles title at the Yonex Taipei Open yesterday, becoming the second Taiwanese team to win a title in the tournament.
Ranked 19th in the world, the Taiwanese duo defeated Kang Min-hyuk and Ki Dong-ju of South Korea 21-18, 21-15 in a pulsating 43-minute final to clinch their first doubles title after teaming up last year.
Wang, the men’s doubles gold medalist at the 2020 and 2024 Olympics, partnered with Chiu in August last year after the retirement of his teammate Lee Yang (李洋).
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
Wang and Chiu won all five of their matches at the tournament in straight games.
The last time Wang claimed a Taipei Open men’s doubles title was in 2018 when he paired up with his older teammate Chen Hung-lin (陳宏麟).
“Now it is my turn to set up the plays and lead the younger player,” Wang said. “This role change makes me feel pretty good.”
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
Wang said that the best performance for him and his new partner this year had been reaching the round of 16.
“Winning the championship at home this time really boosted our confidence. Actually, we started to improve two weeks ago at the BWF [Badminton World Federation] Sudirman Cup. We just didn’t expect to go all the way and win the title,” he said.
For his part, Chiu said that pairing with Wang was not stressful, but motivating.
“The pressure does not come from Wang’s past achievements, but rather from the desire to continuously improve myself in order to keep up,” Chiu added.
Wang and Chiu’s win came after Taiwanese women’s doubles pair Hsieh Pei-shan (謝沛珊) and Hung En-tzu (洪恩慈) earlier in the day clinched the title with a 21-14, 21-15 win over Mizuki Otake and Miyu Takahashi of Japan, also in 43 minutes.
The victory made Hsieh and Hung, the top seeds at the tournament, the first Taiwanese women’s team to win the event in 17 years.
Later yesterday, Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen (周天成) lost to Singapore’s Loh Kean Yew (駱建佑) 14-21, 21-15, 20-22 in the men’s singles final.
Chou, 35, has won the Taipei Open title four times, with the most recent victory in 2022.
The total prize money at the Super 300 tournament on the BWF World Tour is US$240,000.
LONG FLIGHT: The jets would be flown by US pilots, with Taiwanese copilots in the two-seat F-16D variant to help familiarize them with the aircraft, the source said The US is expected to fly 10 Lockheed Martin F-16C/D Block 70/72 jets to Taiwan over the coming months to fulfill a long-awaited order of 66 aircraft, a defense official said yesterday. Word that the first batch of the jets would be delivered soon was welcome news to Taiwan, which has become concerned about delays in the delivery of US arms amid rising military tensions with China. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the initial tranche of the nation’s F-16s are rolling off assembly lines in the US and would be flown under their own power to Taiwan by way
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
OBJECTS AT SEA: Satellites with synthetic-aperture radar could aid in the detection of small Chinese boats attempting to illegally enter Taiwan, the space agency head said Taiwan aims to send the nation’s first low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite into space in 2027, while the first Formosat-8 and Formosat-9 spacecraft are to be launched in October and 2028 respectively, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council laid out its space development plan in a report reviewed by members of the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee. Six LEO satellites would be produced in the initial phase, with the first one, the B5G-1A, scheduled to be launched in 2027, the council said in the report. Regarding the second satellite, the B5G-1B, the government plans to work with private contractors