Ultimate frisbee may not be the purist’s idea of a sport, but that didn’t stop around 5,000 people from enjoying an exciting tie between Taiwan and Australia on the first day of ultimate action at the World Games Main Stadium yesterday evening.
Taiwan got off to the worst possible start, dropping the disc on their goal line straight away to give the Aussies an easy first point.
However, they picked themselves up and equalized almost immediately, then went on to forge a 5-4 lead on the strength of some long passes to speedy No. 5 Lee Lin-yi.
PHOTO: CHANG CHUNG-YI, TAIPEI TIMES
A time out then saw Australia switch to a zone defense strategy, with four players pressuring the thrower. This tactic paid off as some careless play by Taiwan saw Australia take a 7-5 lead into the break.
The second period saw Taiwan score quickly on an Aussie mistake to bring it back to 7-6, but loose defensive play saw Australia pull away to eventually take the match 13-9.
For Taiwan, Lee was the star with six goals.
PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUN, TAIPEI TIMES
Earlier in the day, Taiwan had lost their opening match 13-7 to Japan.
Meanwhile, in the softball, Team Taiwan lost 1-2 to Japan in the semi-finals. This came after they had beaten South Korea 8-1 in their final preliminary game.
Over at Kaohsiung Normal University Gymnasium, Taiwan’s korfball team played their third preliminary match, which saw them earn a hard-fought 17-14 victory over Britain, giving them two wins out of three.
The second day of sports climbing, meanwhile, saw Chuang Yeu-shiang fail to make it past the lead men’s semi-final stage.
On the sand at Siziwan, Taiwan’s ladies were eliminated from the beach handball after losing in the semi-final to Italy 10-13, 18-24.
The men, who lost in a shootout to Hungary in their final group game, were playing Croatia in the quarter-final. The match was still in play as of press time.
In fistball, Taiwan were only playing for pride after already being eliminated, but were still beaten 4-11, 6-11, 2-11 by the Swiss. Switzerland beat Germany and will face Brazil in today’s final.
In the orienteering team mixed relay final at Chengching Lake, Russia won another gold.
■TOAST OF TAIWAN
By RICHARD HAZELDINE
STAFF REPORTER, IN KAOHSIUNG
Twenty-one-year-old Huang Yu-ting is the toast of Taiwan following her golden exploits in the speed skating at the World Games.
Huang, a third-year business student at Kaohsiung’s National Sun Yat-sen University, was crowned queen of the Yangming Skating Rink yesterday after winning gold in the 500m to add to the 1,000m title she won on Saturday and the 300m title she won on Friday. The medals helped propel Taiwan to second in the medal table.
As well as the three medals, Kaohsiung native Huang’s bank balance will look much healthier following her golden treble in her home town. Huang will be NT$6.96 million (US$212,000) richer after receiving NT$2.32 million for each of her gold medals.
A report in the Chinese-language Apple Daily said for each gold medal, she would receive cash from four different prize money funds, NT$900,000 from the Guo Guang fund, NT$1 million from the National Skating Association, NT$400,000 from the Kaohsiung City Government and NT$20,000 from the Executive Yuan.
Huang’s boyfriend is male skater Lo Wei-lin, who won silver in the men’s 500m yesterday and also won gold on Friday in the 300m race. So in the space of just one week, their financial situation is a lot healthier.
Huang, who took a break from her studies to concentrate on the Games, says she will go back to school after next year’s Asian Games.
Asked about his daughter success, Huang’s father, national skating coach Huang Jin-long, said: “She deserves it.”
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