Huang Chih-hsiung (黃志雄) narrowly missed being the third member of Team Taiwan to bring home a gold medal yesterday, being beaten by Iran's Hadi Saei Bonehkohal in the final of the taekwondo competition's men's under-68kg category at the Olympic Games in Athens.
Nevertheless Hung's silver still marks extraordinary sucess for the nation's taekwondo team, coming in the wake of the victories of his team mates Chu Mu-yen (朱木炎) in the men's under-58kg event and and Chen Shih-hsin (陳詩欣) in the women's under-48kg event on Thursday.
PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Back home, the entire country yesterday celebrated the victories of Chu and Chen. President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) paid a visit to the home of Chu's family in Taoyuan and Chen Shih-hsin's family in Taipei to honor the two sports heroes' outstanding achievements.
Encouraged by their teammates' extraordinary success, the 28-year-old Huang and his female teammate, 22-year-old Chi Shu-ju, (紀淑如), also made their attempts to be recognized as the best athletes in their weight categories.
Huang, was already soething of a national hero after winning numerous gold medals during his 16-year taekwondo career.
Chu fought in the women's under-57kg category.
Huang easily defeated Egypt's Tamer Hussein with a score of 8-1 during the preliminary round and entered the quarterfinal to fight with Austria's Tuncay Caliskan, who won his first victory by knocking out his opponent with a strong roundhouse kick to the head.
Huang fell behind Caliskan with a score of 1-3 after the end of first round, but he adjusted his tactics to made several successful offensive kicks to reverse the score at the end of the second round, finishing 6-5.
In the final round, Huang used his left foot to achieve three points consecutively, leaving the score 9-6. Then Caliskan began a more aggressive pattern of attacks, which revealed his weak defensive abilities and gave Huang another opportunity to score.
Huang won the match 10-8, entering the semifinals.
In the semifinal round, Huang defeated his opponent, Guatemala's Gabriel Sagastume with a score of 7-5. The first round began slowly, with Huang pulling ahead with a score of 1-0. In the second round, Sagastume gained steam as he and Huang exchanged blows with metronomic regularity, finishing the round with a 4-4 draw. In the final round, Huang adjusted his tactics and adopted a conservative approach, allowing Sagastume to initiate an attack before landing devastating counterblows on his opponent to pull ahead with a four-point lead, which was later reduced by two points on penalties.
Meanwhile, Chi beat her first opponent with a score of 8-0 in the preliminary round, during which she displayed her lightning-fast roundhouse kicks, also twice landing axe kicks on her opponent.
However, she fought too cautiously during her quarterfinal match with Thailand's Nootcharin Sukkhongdumnoen, resulting in her defeat by one point, with a narrow score of 1-2.
Meanwhile Thursday's gold medal winners, expressed their appreciation for the support of their countrymen, vowing that they will continue to develop their taekwondo careers to bring the nation further glory.
Hundreds of Taiwanese, who attended the competition at the Pavillion Stadium to cheer on the nation's taekwondo athletes, excitedly yelled the slogan "Taiwan No. 1" to celebrate Chu and Chen's victories.
These were Taiwan's first Olympic gold medals.
The victory ceremony to raise Taiwan's Olympic flag and sang the National Flag Song which was regulated by International Olympic Committee since 1981, also attracted international media's question of "why couldn't Taiwan use its national flag and national anthem?"
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
SHARED VALUES: The US, Taiwan and other allies hope to maintain the cross-strait ‘status quo’ to foster regional prosperity and growth, the former US vice president said Former US vice president Mike Pence yesterday vowed to continue to support US-Taiwan relations, and to defend the security and interests of both countries and the free world. At a meeting with President William Lai (賴清德) at the Presidential Office in Taipei, Pence said that the US and Taiwan enjoy strong and continued friendship based on the shared values of freedom, the rule of law and respect for human rights. Such foundations exceed limitations imposed by geography and culture, said Pence, who is visiting Taiwan for the first time. The US and Taiwan have shared interests, and Americans are increasingly concerned about China’s
RSS