Taiwanese table tennis mixed doubles pairing Lin Yun-ju and Cheng I-ching yesterday breezed past their French opponents to clinch a bronze medal at the Tokyo Games, the nation’s first Olympic table tennis medal in 21 years.
The last time Taiwan national squad won a medal was also a bronze won by Chen Jing in the women’s singles at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.
The Taiwanese duo, ranked world No. 1, defeated French pairing Emmanuel Lebesson and Yuan Jia Nan 11-8, 11-7, 11-8, 11-5 in 38 minutes in a match they controlled, never trailing by more than two points in any of the four games.
Photo: AFP
The table tennis bronze was the fourth medal overall for Taiwan at this year’s Games and the second yesterday, following a silver won by the men’s archery team.
Earlier, five-time Olympian Chuang Chih-yuan, who turned 40 in April, looked no more than 25 for at least about half an hour yesterday as he pulled off an upset in the men’s singles.
His stunning 9-11, 11-5, 11-2, 11-2, 11-8 victory in 36 minutes over 13th seed and world No. 20 Wong Chun Ting of Hong Kong propelled him into the round-of-16, the furthest he has advanced in any Olympics other than finishing fourth in London in 2012.
Pretty good for somebody who in 2019 vowed not to compete in Tokyo due to a dispute over coaches and who had looked to be a spent force, his ranking plummeting to 26th in the world.
“He made a few more unforced errors than normal, and after yesterday’s match I tweaked a few things and got better results,” Chuang said in a TV interview after his victory. “I made a lot fewer unforced errors today than I did yesterday.”
He barely pulled through his opening match against Horacio Cifuentes, beating the unheralded Argentine 4-3 by winning the final two games in a performance that was anything but convincing.
Chuang lost almost every fast-paced rally against his younger opponent, and struggled to defend and position himself well.
That continued yesterday when Chuang could not keep up with Wong at the end of the first game.
The Taiwanese relied on his guile to jump to a quick lead in the second game, using spin and short, well-placed balls to keep Wong off balance, before suddenly finding the fountain of youth.
Up 8-5 in the second game, Chuang won 27 of the next 31 points to go up 3-1, hitting winning smashes, keeping pace in every rally and getting back everything that Wong could throw at him.
It was an amazing display for a player who had been an afterthought before the Games began and though he lost the momentum halfway through the final game, as a 5-0 lead evaporated to 9-7, he closed out the match with the help of an error by Wong.
Chuang has made his run without the help of a coach. His usual coach — his mom — was not included among the three accompanying Taiwan’s table tennis squad, so he has decided to go it alone, a strategy that has worked so far.
“I thank everybody for their support,” he said in response to the many fans who wondered why he was without a coach. “Sometimes when I go play events on tour there are not that many people around, so it feels okay and is not something I’m not used to.”
His next match is to be against either sixth seed Mattias Falck of Sweden or Omar Assar of Egypt.
The 40-year-old has never won an Olympic medal, having come closest in 2012 when he lost in seven games in the bronze medal match against Dimitrij Ovtcharov of Germany.
To get to the medal round this year, Chuang would likely have to get past Falck and second seed Ma Long of China, but for at least one afternoon in Tokyo, Chuang’s play belied his years.
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