Four Taiwanese taekwondo athletes, including an ailing Olympic medalist competing in an unfamiliar weight class, won medals at the Taekwondo Austrian Open in Innsbruck.
Gold medals went to Hsu Hao-yu in the men’s under-63kg class and Ma Yu-hsin in the women’s under-49kg class, while Lin Wei-chun in the women’s under-53kg class and Olympian Lo Chia-ling in the women’s under-62kg class both won bronze, team coach Liu Tsung-ta said on Monday.
That Lo even competed was already a victory of sorts, he said.
Photo courtesy of coach Liu Tsung-ta via CNA
It was Lo’s first public event since bagging a bronze medal for Taiwan in the women’s under-57kg event at the Tokyo Summer Olympics in July last year, Liu said.
She was supposed to have competed in the Swedish Taekwondo Open G2 in late April, but injured herself before leaving Taiwan.
After taking a month to recover, she was once again injured while training in South Korea, leaving her unable to get her weight down to the level needed for her preferred under-57kg weight class.
As the injury happened just two days before Lo was to leave for Austria, Liu said he initially thought about benching her.
They had Lo compete in the women’s under-62kg class instead, but the Olympian aggravated an old injury during a pre-match warmup, and she had to take a painkiller before her first bout, Liu said.
In the end, Lo underperformed at the event, largely because she was competing in a less familiar weight class and lacked practice because of her run of injuries, but she still won a bronze medal, he said.
Lo and another highly ranked athlete, Lee Meng-en, are now heading to Italy for the World Taekwondo Grand Prix, which starts on Friday.
They are then to participate in competitions in Luxembourg this month and in Paris at the end of August.
The other three are off to South Korea, Liu said.
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