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.
Tainan TSG Hawks slugger Steven Moya, who is leading the CPBL in home runs, has withdrawn from this weekend’s All-Star Game after the unexpected death of his wife. Moya’s wife began feeling severely unwell aboard a plane that landed at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday evening. She was rushed to a hospital, but passed away, the Hawks said in a statement yesterday. The franchise is assisting Moya with funeral arrangements and hopes fans who were looking forward to seeing him at the All-Star Game can understand his decision to withdraw. According to Landseed Medical Clinic, whose staff attempted to save Moya’s wife,
Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt yesterday backed Nick Champion de Crespigny to be the team’s “roving scavenger” after handing him a shock debut in the opening Test against the British and Irish Lions Test in Brisbane. Hard man Champion de Crespigny, who spent three seasons at French side Castres before moving to the Western Force this year, is to get his chance tomorrow with first-choice blindside flanker Rob Valetini not fully fit. His elevation is an eye-opener, preferred to Tom Hooper, but Schmidt said he had no doubt about his abilities. “I keep an eye on the Top 14 having coached there many years
Ukrainian coal miner Andrii’s face lit up when he talked about meeting Oleksandr Usyk. “Wow,” the 36-year-old said in English. Andrii and more than a dozen other war veterans were on hand when Usyk beat Daniel Dubois at Wembley Stadium on Saturday night to become the undisputed world heavyweight champion. It was a rematch of their 2023 bout that Andrii viewed under vastly different circumstances. “I watched this fight on the front line on my phone,” he said through an interpreter during a stop on Friday at the Ukrainian Embassy in London. “We were watching very quietly, but when he won there was loud
Saudi Arabia yesterday were drawn to take on Iraq and Indonesia in the fourth phase of Asia’s preliminaries for next year’s FIFA World Cup, with back-to-back Asian Cup winners Qatar to face the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Oman. The winners of each of the three-team groups, which are to be played in October, would join already-qualified Australia, Japan, South Korea, Uzbekistan, Iran and Jordan at next year’s expanded 48-nation finals in the US, Canada and Mexico. Saudi Arabia, who are attempting to qualify for a seventh World Cup finals since 1994, are to host Group A and open against Indonesia on
RSS