Taiwan’s athletes yesterday celebrated gold medals in karate and dragon boat racing, while wins in badminton and basketball made podium finishes possible at the Asian Games in Indonesia.
Wen Tzu-yun (文姿云) edged Kazakhstan’s Sabina Zakharova 1-0 in the women’s karate under-55kg division, before defeating Macau’s Wong Sok I 4-1 in their semi-final and defeating Iran’s Taravat Khaksar 4-0 in their final.
Wen is the first athlete to become the bantamweight champion in consecutive Games, as she also took home gold at the Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea, in 2014.
Photo: AP
Ranked world No. 1, Wen said she felt confident of beating her opponents.
“I just knew that I could do it. Then for some reason I got nervous and did not sleep well for a few days,” she said. “It was only last night that I felt my body was ready for it.”
In the men’s 500m dragon boat final, Taiwan outdistanced the other five teams.
Photo: AFP
The 16-member Taiwan team finished in 2 minutes, 11.691 seconds to take gold, followed by China in 2:14.297 for silver and Indonesia in 2:15.727 for bronze.
“The team performed at the top level that I knew they were capable of and the result was better than we expected,” said Huang Chun-ting, head coach of the men’s dragon boat team. “We got the team to stay relaxed when starting out ... while aiming for the final.”
“We have to stay focused to get another medal in the 1,000m,” Huang added.
The Taiwan women’s team finished their 500m dragon boat semi-final in 2:33.722 to take fourth — behind Indonesia, China and Singapore — but did not qualify for the final.
In badminton, Taiwan’s top players Tai Tzu-ying and Chou Tien-chen were victorious in their match, carrying them into the medal rounds.
World No. 1 Tai cruised past Nozomi Okuhara of Japan 21-15, 21-10 in their women’s singles match to face Saina Nehwal of India in the semi-finals.
Chou worked hard to beat Ng Ka Long of Hong Kong 21-18, 21-18 to face Anthony Ginting of Indonesia in the semi-finals.
Taiwan pairing Lee Yang and Lee Jhe-huei defeated Choi Sol-gyu and Kang Min-hyuk of South Korea 21-16, 21-16 to advance to the men’s doubles semi-finals.
In hoops action, the Taiwan women’s basketball team thrashed Mongolia 76-59 in their quarter-final to face the unified Korea team in the semi-finals on Thursday.
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