Lin Mao-chang was the only Taiwanese to win a medal yesterday by beating Russia’s Sergey Tarasov in the men’s under-90kg judo to claim bronze. There was also good news in the men’s beach volleyball as Taiwan’s victory over the US guarantees a quarter-final place.
In the bowling, the women’s trio and masters and the men’s masters teams all earned a chance to win gold as the highest scoring teams in their respective preliminaries.
However, the men’s volleyball team can only place ninth at best after losing to Russia.
Meanwhile, Taiwan’s handball team lost their chance for a medal when a player failed a hearing test.
The team was forced to forfeit its win against Turkey, meaning they can finish no higher than fifth, said Donalda Ammons, president of the International Committee of Sports for the Deaf (ICSD).
Ammons explained that the ICSD required all delegations to submit an audiogram for each athlete to prove they met the required hearing loss of more than 55 decibels and reserved the right to ask for another test
She also said Taiwan’s delegation ignored three requests to re-test athletes.
On Wednesday, Taiwanese handballer Chen Yu-liang (陳禹良) was finally re-tested and it was found that hearing in one of his ears did not meet ICSD standards.
The Chinese Taipei Sports Association of the Deaf said both of Chen’s ears registered hearing loss over 70 decibels when first tested.
Stressing that Taiwan had not been singled out, Ammons said about 700 athletes from more than 20 countries would be re-tested.
Meanwhile, a complaint by Taiwan’s bowling team that it had lost a chance for a bronze because of the referees’ failure to uphold the rules was rejected.
During Wednesday’s match against Saudi Arabia, the US asked to reposition the pins in the fourth frame of the sixth game, causing the Saudis to complain of distraction because of people moving on the lanes.
The referees asked the teams to continue to play as the protest was heard by the technical committee, which later decided it was valid.
By the time the decision was announced, the Saudi team was trailing in frame seven. They asked to start the game again at the point when the complaint was first lodged -— the fourth frame — and subsequently won, costing Taiwan the bronze.
Taiwan argued the game should not have been played retro-actively but the ICSD said the result stands.
■SOCCER
BY DAVE CARROLL
STAFF REPORTER
The US, brimming with confidence following their victory over reigning champions Britain in the final round of group matches, came down to earth with a bump against Russia as they lost 0-5 in the men’s soccer quarter-finals at Yingfeng Sports Field in Taipei yesterday morning.
It only took a minute for the US to fall behind when the referee awarded a penalty and Russia’s Vladislav Zorin stepped up to bury the spot-kick.
Russia scored again eight minutes later when Robert Dzantiev let fly from 25m, leaving US keeper Christopher Jones with no chance after his shot took a deflection.
In the 34th minute, Marat Shirinyants’ shot also got a big deflection that sent Jones the wrong way to make it 3-0 at half-time.
A mistake by Jones made the game safe for Russia in the 63rd minute when his goal-kick went straight to Arkadiy Kochiev, who rounded the keeper to score Russia’s fourth.
The prolific Nikolay Afanasyev got on the score sheet again in the 90th minute to make it 5-0.
Russia will face Germany in the semis, after they beat Argentina 6-2 in the other morning quarter-final. France booked their spot in the semis with a 1-0 win over Ireland and will face Ukraine who beat Iran.
In the ninth to 15th place playoffs, Britain beat South Africa 5-0, Spain beat Kazakhstan by the same score and Japan beat South Korea on penalties after a 2-2 draw.
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