Another bronze medal in taekwondo for Taiwan was earned the hard way by Sung Yu-chi (宋玉麒) yesterday at the Beijing Science and Technology University Gymnasium in Beijing.
Sung was beaten in the semi-finals by the eventual winner of the 68kg contest, but struck back in the repechage.
Sung’s third-place medal is the fourth bronze of Taiwan’s campaign in China at the Olympics, but with a bit of good fortune it could have been more.
PHOTO: JOHN HANCOCK
Sometimes it’s the luck of the draw and Sung’s compatriot Su Li-wen (蘇麗文) will be feeling hard done by after meeting gold medal winner Lim Su-jeong from South Korea in the first round. Lim won 1-0 and that was it. Su was out of contention in the under-57kg competition after just one fight.
It was a huge disappointment for the 2006 Doha Asian Games champion, but she had to pick herself up for the repechage. To her credit she did and emerged the victor in her bout against Kiwi Robin Cheong by the narrowest of margins, 1-0, despite carrying a knee injury and needing several timeouts for medical attention.
This gave her the chance of a bronze medal in her next battle against beaten semi-finalist Martina Zubcic. But there was double disappointment for Su, as she fell 5-4 against the Croatian. Even so, she was applauded for carrying on the good fight with an obviously faltering knee.
In the men’s division, Sung was in great form and powered through the opening rounds. He demolished New Zealand’s Logan Campbell 4-0 and overcame Uzbekistan’s Dmitriy Kim 3-2 to make the semi-final.
But South Korean Son Tae-jin was not going to be moved so easily and, despite a great scrap, Sung lost by just one point in a vigorous 7-6 contest.
Clearly, Son had peaked at just the right time after claiming the 68kg World Qualification Tournament in Manchester, England.
The final between Son and the US’ Mark Lopez was 3-2 in the South Korean’s favor.
Sung, who claimed the men’s 72kg title at the taekwondo Worlds last year, had to settle for a bronze medal battle with Germany’s Daniel Manz, in what turned out to be one of the bouts of the day — a hard-won 4-3 victory.
Though there will be soul-searching today in the nation’s taekwondo camp, there is no shame in winning two bronze medals.
It was always going to be difficult in Beijing, as the domestic pressure of doing well after its stunning pair of golds in Athens combined with the mixed feelings that Chinese fans and organizers had toward the Taiwan team.
Additionally, it could fairly be pointed out that Taiwan missed out by being prevented from competing at test events that ran in Beijing earlier this year.
As a result, Taiwan’s four competitors — Su, Sung, Chu Mu-yen (朱木炎) and Yang Shu-chun (楊淑君) — watched from the sidelines.
There will be no such problems in London 2012, and this is inevitably where the thoughts of Taiwan’s taekwondo fighters and coaches will turn now.
“John Hancock” is the Taipei Times’ correspondent for the Beijing Olympics.
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