Taiwan boosted its medal total at the Paris Olympics to one gold and five bronzes on Thursday after weightlifter Kuo Hsing-chun’s third-place finish in the women’s 59kg weight class, but it was shut out in taekwondo.
Kuo, who won gold in Tokyo Games, took the bronze medal in her weight division with a total lift of 235kg, 1kg behind silver medalist Maude Charron of Canada.
China’s Luo Shifang was crowned champion with a new Olympic record total lift of 241kg. She also set a new Olympic record in her third attempt at the snatch by lifting 107kg.
Photo: AP
Entering her last lift in the clean and jerk, Kuo knew she had the bronze medal locked up and attempted a lift of 137kg to put her ahead of Luo, but she did not get the bar up far enough before letting it fall to the floor and settled for third.
With her bronze, the 30-year-old Kuo became the first Taiwanese Olympian to win three medals, but Taiwan’s streak of winning weightlifting gold in the past four Olympics could be coming to an end.
Whether that record can continue hinges on Chen Wen-hui, who is to compete in the women’s 71kg event today.
Photo: Reuters
Chen, 27, won a bronze in the women’s 64kg division at the Tokyo Games.
Meanwhile, taekwondo athlete Lo Chia-ling was ousted in the round-of-16 in the women’s 57kg event by Laetitia Aoun of Lebanon, 4-2, 3-2.
Lo had a chance to qualify for the repechage if Aoun, who won a bronze medal in the 2018 Asian Games, had made it to the final. However, she lost in the semi-final to Nahid Kiyanichandeh of Iran, 10-3, 9-0, eliminating Lo from the competition.
Lo, 22, won a bronze medal in her debut in Tokyo and was Taiwan’s only athlete to compete in taekwondo at the Olympic Games this summer.
It was the second time in the last three games that Taiwan has failed to win a taekwondo medal, in what had been a traditionally strong event for the national Olympic team.
From the Sydney Games in 2000, when taekwondo was first made an official Olympic sport, to the 2012 London Games, Taiwan won eight taekwondo medals, but was shut out in Rio and won one in Tokyo.
Also on Thursday, golfers Hsu Wei-ling and Chien Pei-yun ended the day 14th and 29th, respectively, after the second round of the women’s individual tournament.
Hsu was at 1-under, seven shots behind the leader Morgane Metraux of Switzerland and four shots out of third place, after shooting a 3-under 69.
Chien was at 3-over after a 1-under par 71.
With boxer Lin Yu-ting guaranteed a medal after reaching the women’s 57kg final, Taiwan has secured at least seven medals in Paris, its second-most in history after the 12 it won in Tokyo.
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