Taiwanese para table tennis player Cheng Ming-chih won silver on Tuesday in the men’s singles event at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.
Cheng missed the gold after losing to Tommy Urhaug of Norway 11-5, 7-11, 11-7, 7-11, 9-11 in a thrilling Class TT5 men’s singles final.
Cheng’s coach, Lin Chia-jung, said that she and Cheng trained solidly and had no time off for winter and summer vacations during the last three years of preparation for the Paralympics.
Photo: AP
“The hard training paid off,” Lin said, adding that Cheng defeated China’s Rio Paralympics gold medalist Cao Ningning in the quarter-finals and then Serbian player Mitar Palikuca in the semi-finals.
However, in the gold medal match, it was Urhaug who came out on top.
Lin said that despite the result being a bit disappointing, the two had done their best and “I am happy I get to coach him.”
Photo: AP
Cheng said it was his first medal in the Paralympic men’s singles TT5 event.
He would like to thank his coach and family for their relentless support, Cheng added.
Lin, in particular, was crucial to his success, as she trained with him a lot and helped boost his mental toughness before the games, he said.
“She has been with me for many years, and she supports me in every move I make on the court,” he added.
Cheng, 45, and fellow Taiwanese player Lin Yen-hung won a silver medal in the men’s team TT5 event at the 2016 Rio Paralympics.
However, Cheng did not win a medal at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games in 2021.
Cheng, who has played table tennis since he was a child and used to be a coach at an elementary school, became a national para table tennis athlete after losing his left leg in a car accident when he was 32.
He was on top of the International Table Tennis Federation Para Table Tennis Ranking List’s Men class 5 in 2020.
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