Taiwan’s Huang Ying-hsuan on Sunday defeated the world No. 1 on her way to winning a bronze medal in the women’s under-46kg division at the World Taekwondo Championships in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Huang, a freshman at National Taiwan Sport University, was making her debut in international competition at the championships, after missing tournaments over the past two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Competing in the lightest weight category for women, she ran the table with three early wins in the rounds of 64, 32 and 16, before upsetting world No. 1 Kang Mi-reu of South Korea in the quarter-finals.
Photo: EPA-EFE
In her semi-final against Turkey’s Rukiye Yildirim, Huang fell behind 2-7 in the first round, but rallied with nine unanswered points before Yildirim connected on a head kick to pull out a narrow 13-12 win.
Huang lost the match 0-2 after dropping the second round 5-12, earning one of two bronze medals in the weight class.
Yildirim went on to win silver, while Lena Stojkovic of Croatia won gold.
Photo: AFP
After the match, coach Chang Sheng-kuo said that Huang appeared “flustered” in the second round against Yildirim after losing the first in a narrow decision.
He credited Huang for her “fearless” performance in the tournament, saying her top-four finish had “far exceeded” their expectations for her international debut.
In this year’s world championships, which ended on Sunday, Taiwan entered competitors in all 16 weight classes — eight men and eight women — winning medals in three.
In addition to Huang’s bronze medal, Chen Po-yen won a bronze medal in the men’s under-54kg division and Olympic medalist Lo Chia-ling clinched the silver medal in the women’s under-57kg category.
In taekwondo, one and five points are awarded for valid punches and kicks to an opponent’s torso or head, and deducted for each penalty committed.
While past world championships added up the total score over three two-minute rounds to determine the victor, this year’s competition adopted a new best-of-three scoring system in which the first to win two rounds was declared the winner.
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
Taiwanese badminton superstar Lee Yang broke down in tears after publicly retiring from the sport on Sunday. The two-time Olympic gold medalist held a retirement ceremony at the Taipei Arena after the final matches of the Taipei Open. Accompanied by friends, family and former badminton partners, Lee burst into tears while watching a video celebrating key moments in his professional sporting career that also featured messages from international players such as Malaysia’s Teo Ee Yi, Hong Kong’s Tang Chun-man, and Indonesia’s Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan. “I hope that in the future when the world thinks about me, they will
Former Formosa Dreamers player Ilkan Karaman was killed in a traffic accident in Datca, Turkey, Turkish media reported yesterday. He was 34. The former Turkish national team player was reportedly hit by a car, the driver of which was allegedly drunk, while he was standing on a sidewalk, Turkish newspaper Sozcu reported. Karaman and his friends were on their way to the beach town of Dalaman to go scuba diving when they stopped at a gas station to buy gasoline, it reported. Karaman was hit by the car while waiting on a sidewalk as his friends were buying gasoline, it
ANKLE PROBLEM: Taiwan’s Ye Hong-wei and Lee Chia-hsin had a disappointing end to their tournament after an injury forced them out of their mixed doubles semi-final Taiwanese badminton ace Tai Tzu-ying on Friday was knocked out in the women’s singles quarter-finals at her last Taipei Open. The world No. 3 lost 21-18, 16-21, 22-24 to Putri Kusuma Wardani of Indonesia in a match that stretched 68 minutes at the Taipei Arena. Despite her higher ranking, Tai said she was not too sad about the loss, given her struggle with a lingering knee injury. “Wins and losses are just part of the game. Actually, I think I’m going to lose every single match considering my condition now,” said the five-time champion of the Super 300 event, who has announced plans
RSS