Taiwan takes badminton gold
Taiwan took gold in the women's doubles badminton tournament at the World University Games in Thailand yesterday when Cheng Wen-hsin and Chien Yu-chin easily defeated China's Tian Qing and Pan Pan in the finals.
The two Taiwanese raced out to an early 8-2 lead by capitalizing on mistakes from the Chinese duo, taking the first game 21-9.
Tien and Pan steadied themselves for the second game and pulled out to an early 5-1 lead, but Cheng and Chien slowly pulled the score even at 10-10. The two practically sealed the victory when they reeled off nine points in a row to take a 19-10 lead, and eventually won the game and the gold with 21-13.
In the singles category, first-seeded Taiwanese entrant Cheng Shao-chieh, who is ranked 21st in the world, took silver after a series of injuries kept her from achieving her goal of winning gold in her match against China's Wang Yihan.
The men's doubles duo of Tsai Chia-hsin and Hsieh Yu-hsing stumbled after winning the first game of the championship match to lose to their Thai opponents 21-17, 17-21, 14-21 and earn a silver medal.
Women's tennis duo Chuang Chia-jung and Chan Yung-jan also took gold after defeating Kazakhstan's Amina Rakhim and Madina Rakhim 4-6, 6-2, 6-2.
The rest of Taiwan's tennis squad faltered yesterday after dominating their way into the finals and quarter-finals of almost every category on Tuesday, but still managed to come away with three bronzes.
In the men's singles, Chen Ti ran into Thai No. 1 seed Danai Udomchoke, losing 2-6, 4-6. Chan Chin-wei, No. 2 seed in the women's singles, was beaten by Russia's Alisa Kleybanova 0-6, 1-6.
In the mixed doubles, Chuang Chia-jung and Chen Ti lost to Russian pair Kleybanova and Alexander Krasnorutskiy 6-3, 3-6, 0-6.
Taiwan is guaranteed to take both gold and silver in the men's doubles table tennis division after two pairs won their respective brackets to advance to the finals. Taiwan's Chuang Chih-yuan and Chang Yan-shu easily handled their Chinese opponents yesterday in a 4-1 win, while Wu Chih-chi and Hung Hung-chieh dispatched their Japanese opponents by the same score.
The women's softball team claimed victory over South Korea 6-0 thanks to a complete game, one-hit performance by starter Lin Su-hua. The win guarantees the team at least a bronze medal.
The women's basketball squad also recovered from its heart-breaking loss to the US on Tuesday to beat Canada 62-59 in a fourth-quarter comeback. The win earns the team a chance to play the US again for fifth place.
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