Table tennis players Lin Yun-ju and Su Pei-ling of Taiwan won a bronze medal on Monday in the table tennis mixed international team event at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Lin and Su took on Truls Moregard of Sweden and Sabina Surjan of Serbia from the European team for the bronze medal after the team from Taiwan lost to China’s Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha in the event’s semi-finals earlier the same day.
Matches in the mixed international team competition consist of two singles matches and a mixed doubles match, and Taiwan got off to a tough start in the women’s singles of the bronze medal contest when Su fell to Surjan 11-9, 14-12, 11-8.
Photo: AP
Lin started slowly in the men’s singles before overcoming Moregard 10-12, 12-10, 17-15, 11-5.
The decisive mixed doubles match went the full five games, with Lin and Su prevailing 11-13, 11-7, 11-7, 3-11 and 13-11 to secure the medal.
Lin, who won bronze in the table tennis men’s team competition at this year’s Asian Games in Indonesia, said that he and Sun kept encouraging each other to maintain their composure in the match for the bronze medal.
“I’m really happy to have won a medal and gotten something out of such a long match,” said Lin, who credited experience from the Asian Games and Youth Olympic Games with helping him to grow mentally and improve his skills.
Su said that she did her best in the women’s singles, but struggled with nerves during the loss.
“Fortunately, Lin and the coach kept encouraging me to overcome my emotions and calm myself down to win the mixed doubles,” Su said.
Taiwanese canoeing athlete Lai Tzu-hsuan also bagged a bronze medal in the K-1 (kayak single) women’s competition at the Games.
Lai competed in four heats on Monday to advance to the semi-finals.
“It was not easy to win the medal, because I spent about four months preparing myself for the competition,” Lai said. “I still think winning the bronze was like a dream.”
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