Taiwan has continued to prove itself a force to be reckoned with in tennis over the past two days, taking gold medals in both soft and regular divisions.
Taiwan's women's team tennis showed no signs of rust after their championship match was delayed because of rain on Thursday, beating their Indian opponents on Friday to secure the nation's first gold medal ever in the event at the Asian Games.
Hsieh Su-wei led the Taiwanese charge, beating Uberoi Shikha in the first set singles match, then pairing with Chuang Chia-jung to seal the victory in the third set doubles.
PHOTO: WANG YI-SUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
The match almost took a turn for the worse in the first set when Hsieh allowed Shikha to even the score at 5-5 in the second game after taking a 5-1 lead. But she managed to settle down and finish off the game 5-7 to win the set.
The only setback of the match came during the second set when Chan Yung-jan, who has been hampered by allergies that resulted from bandages on her arms and legs, lost in two games.
The stadium was packed with 2,000 screaming Indian fans, but Hsieh used that to motivate herself, saying"winning was the only way to make the crowd shut up."
The men's soft tennis doubles pair of Li Chia-hung and Yang Sheng-fa also took a gold medal on the last day of soft tennis competition, beating their South Korean opponents 5-3. The South Koreans were down 3-0 just 12 minutes into the match, but fought back to take three of the next four.
Yang said nerves got the better of them in the seventh when they squandered six match point opportunities and ended up losing the frame.
However, they steadied themselves to win the eighth game 4-2 and took home Taiwan's third soft tennis gold of the tournament.
Wu Yen-ni earned the only silver medal of the day in the women's 51kg taekwondo. She cruised through her quarter-final and semi-final matches against the Philippines and Vietnam, but ran into South Korea's Kwon Eun-kyung for a 2-0 loss in the championship match.
Wu said she was disappointed, but remains focused on the 2008 Olympics as her main goal.
Meanwhile, heavily favored Chu Mu-yen, who won a gold medal in the Athens Olympics, was upset in his taekwondo semifinal match 3-1 by Thailand's Tewawetchapong Nattapong, but the loss meant that he gets an automatic bronze medal.
Chu partially blamed his loss on being unable to adapt to some of the new rules, and said he would take two months to consider whether to participate in the 2008 Olympics.
Liao Chia-hsing also lost the 78kg taekwondo semifinal match to his Iranian opponent to earn an automatic bronze, giving up the only point in the final seconds of the third round to lose 0-1.
Those medals continued to push Taiwan up in the overall medal standings, from eighth to sixth place out of 45 teams.
Taiwan's Hsiao Mei-yu took silver in the women's cycling 500m time trials yesterday with a time of 36.190 seconds. However, she was up against tough competition, as China's Guo Shuang set a new games record with a time of 35.175 seconds.
In the men's 1km time trials Liao Kuo-lung missed a medal by just 1.316 seconds to finish in fourth place at 1:06.358, coming in behind South Korea's Kang Dong Jin.
In billiards, Lin Yuan-chun defeated China's Pan Xiao-ting 7-5 to advance to the finals in women's eight-ball.
The golf teams also had a solid second round yesterday after dominating the field on Friday. The men's team finished second with a combined score of 415, just two strokes behind South Korea, while the women's team placed third behind South Korea and Japan with a combined 277 after two days of play. Fifteen-year-old Pan Chen-tsung fell to second in the men's individual event after his field-leading 66 on Friday grew to a 71 yesterday, while the Taiwanese women's individual leader, Tseng Ya-ni, held third place overall with a 68.
Taiwan's only bodybuilding entrant, Hsu Chia-hao, finished in eighth place in the 90kg-and-over weight class.
The women's handball team also had a rough day, losing 44-17 to South Korea in their preliminary match.
Taiwan’s Lee Hao-yu on Friday went 0-for-3 in his MLB debut for the Detroit Tigers against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park, becoming the 19th Taiwan-born player to reach the big leagues. The Tigers ultimately lost 1-0 in 10 innings, ending their six-game winning streak. The 23-year-old started at third base and batted eighth for Detroit. He was promoted from Triple-A Toledo ahead of the four-game series against the Red Sox at the latter’s home stadium, replacing injured utility player Zach McKinstry. “Being right-handed, and given our schedule, I think six of the next 12 games are going to
When Paddy Dwyer arrived in China in 1976, crowds jostled to catch a glimpse of him and his companions — the first Western soccer team to play in the country. China was emerging from the chaos of the Cultural Revolution, and on the brink of market reforms that would take the country from economic stagnation to explosive growth. “All we could see was lines of people running beside our bus, trying to look in the windows, to see their first visual of a white person,” he said. “It was all bicycles,” he said. “There were very few cars to be seen.” Dwyer,
Matheus Cunha on Saturday fired Manchester United toward the UEFA Champions League with a 1-0 win at Chelsea, while Tottenham Hotspur remain in the relegation zone after twice blowing the lead to draw with Brighton & Hove Albion. Chelsea failed to take advantage of a United defense ravaged by injury and suspension as a fourth straight league defeat for the Blues left their Champions League hopes in ruins. United have missed out on the riches of Europe’s elite competition for the past two seasons, but are closing in on a return thanks to an upturn in fortunes under interim manager
A new NZ$683 million (US$404 million) stadium that was a symbol of Christchurch’s struggle to rebuild after a deadly earthquake struck the New Zealand city is to host its first match tomorrow in front of a sellout crowd. A magnitude 6.2 earthquake killed 185 people in February 2011 and toppled or damaged buildings, including the city’s old Lancaster Park. The stadium, which hosted international rugby and cricket, and was home to the Canterbury Crusaders, was badly damaged and never reopened. It was bulldozed in 2019 and turned into sports fields, leaving the Crusaders without a permanent home. Government funding for a new stadium was
RSS