Taiwanese boxer Chen Nien-chin yesterday advanced to the Olympic quarter-finals after defeating Italy’s Angela Carini in the women’s welterweight category in Tokyo.
The fourth-seeded boxer, who at 24 is competing in her second Olympics, beat Carini with a 3-2 decision in the 69kg match at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo.
Chen jumped to an early lead, taking the first of the 3 minute rounds 4-1, before narrowly holding the second by a 3-2 margin and losing the third 2-3.
Photo: Reuters
Three of the five judges gave Chen the edge, scoring her 30-27, 29-28 and 29-28, while the other two gave the nod to Carini, with scores of 29-28 and 29-28.
By advancing into the quarter-finals, Chen has surpassed her 2016 performance in Rio de Janeiro, where she was eliminated in the round of 16 while competing in the 75kg middleweight category.
Chen is set to face 23-year-old Lovlina Borgohain of India — who also advanced with a 3-2 victory against a much older German opponent yesterday — on Friday morning.
Photo: AP
Chen and Borgohain previously met in a semi-final bout at the 2018 AIBA World Boxing Championships, which the former won 4-0 on her way to being crowned world champion.
In the women’s lightweight round of 32, Taiwan’s Wu Shih-yi beat Sweden’s Agnes Alexiusson 4-1.
In swimming, Taiwan’s Eddie Wang placed 13th among 16 athletes in his men’s 200m butterfly semi-final, losing his chance to compete for a medal.
Only the top eight swimmers are to compete for a spot on the podium today.
Wang completed the race in 1 minute, 55.52 seconds, trailing winner Kristof Milak of Hungary by 3.5 seconds.
Malik finished in 1 minute, 52.22 seconds, followed by Leonardo de Deus of Brazil in 1 minute, 54.97 seconds.
In the 200m butterfly heats on Monday, Wang had placed second overall with a time of 1 minute, 54.44 seconds, behind Malik’s 1 minute, 53.58 seconds. Wang broke his previous national record of 1 minute, 54.77 seconds, which he had set at this year’s National Games.
Wang said he felt he had “let everyone down.”
Swimming competitions are usually structured with the heats in the morning and finals in the evening, but for broadcast reasons, the heats were held on Monday evening and the semi-finals yesterday morning, which Wang said affected his performance.
He said he had not slept well the night before, as he was thinking about the race, and so he was not at his best.
He was among the fastest in his group for the first 150m, but “in the last 50m, my body kind of broke down,” he said.
Wang is also competing tomorrow in the men’s 100m butterfly heat, but he said the event is not his forte, so he would take it easy and just enjoy the race.
In shooting, Taiwan’s Lin Ying-shin and Lu Shao-chuan were eliminated in the first qualification stage for the 10m air rifle mixed team event.
The duo, who won a gold medal at the 2018 Asian Games, scored a combined 625.4 points, with Lin shooting 313.5 and Lu 311.9, to finish 14th among 29 teams.
Only the top eight teams advanced to the next round.
Their inability to move on to the next stage meant the two shooters’ Olympic journey has come to an end after both were eliminated in individual events.
In archery, Taiwan’s Tan Ya-ting was defeated 6-4 by Bryony Pitman of the UK in the individual round of 32.
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