Taiwan got back on the medal trail yesterday in dramatic fashion on the penultimate day of action with three gold medals at the World Games in Kaohsiung.
The golds came in karate (one) and powerlifting (two), while Taiwanese athletes also picked up one bronze each in Karate and women’s nine ball pool.
Huang Hao-yun (黃昊昀) picked up a gold medal in the men’s karate kumite under 80kg final, although he probably knew little about it as he was taken to hospital after being knocked out by Russia’s Islamutdin Eldaruchev in his gold medal bout.
PHOTO: CHANG CHUNG-YI, TAIPEI TIMES
Huang had earlier fought his way back to 6-6 from 5-2 down in a violent bout that saw both men flattened on a number of occasions. However, his Russian opponent then knocked Huang out with a punch to the face that saw Huang stretchered off. Huang was handed an 8-0 win and the gold medal.
Minister of Sport Tai Hsia-ling (戴遐齡) stood in for Huang at the medal ceremony, collecting the medal in front of an empty podium.
Meanwhile, Chang Ting(張婷) also won a bronze in the women’s under-60kg division.
Earlier in the day, Chen Wei-ling (陳葦綾) and Hsieh Tsung-ting (謝宗庭) were the stars as they grabbed gold in the powerlifting women’s and men’s lightweight divisions respectively while in the women’s pool Lin Yuan-chun took bronze after beating compatriot Chang Shu-han in the third-fourth place playoff.
The medals take Taiwan up to sixth spot in the overall medal table with eight gold, six silver and six bronze medals.
Olympic bronze medalist Chen set new world records in the deadlift and the squat at the National Sun Yat-sen University Hall which helped to make up for her bench press score, the poorest of her three disciplines.
Chen finished with a score of 668.27, well ahead of second-placed Yukaku Fukushima of Japan who scored 630.65.
Chen said later that she was happy to win gold at the World Games, especially as they were in Taiwan.
“I felt I had a good chance to win, so I didn’t feel that much pressure,” she said.
Indonesia’s Sri Hartani finished with bronze after scoring 628.9 while Taiwan’s Chou Yi-ju finished fourth with 609.27 points.
Meanwhile, Hsieh took gold after his three lifts earned him a combined total of 615.92 points, while Arkadiy Shalokha of Ukraine took silver with 584.37.
Speaking after the medal ceremony, Hsieh thanked his namesake former Kaohsiung mayor Frank Hsieh for all the support and encouragement he had given him.
Later, Taiwan’s Chou Chien-yu just missed out on a medal finishing just 2.9 points short of third place in the women’s middleweight division.
Men’s middleweight powerlifters Huang Lung-hsin and Kuan Yi-hsin also missed out on a medal, while the men’s heavyweight final featuring Chen Ching-chung was ongoing as of press time.
In the women’s pool, Lin and Chang were forced to face off in the bronze medal match after Chang had lost her semi-final in the early session 9-2 to Jasmin Ouschan of Austria while Lin Yuan-chun was beaten 9-5 by Alison Fisher of the UK.
Men’s hope Yang Ching-shun stayed on track for gold after narrowly beating Germany’s Thorsten Hohmann 11-10 in the round of four to make the final where he will meet Ralf Souquet of Germany.
Also yesterday, Taiwan’s Tchoukball teams continued their awesome form on day two of qualifying at the Kaoshiung Normal University Gymnasium yesterday.
The men’s team scored a big win against Macau in their first game of the day, winning 64-28, while the ladies ran out 75-22 winners over Singapore.
In the evening games the men beat the UK 73-42 and the ladies beat Canada 57-22. The wins saw them finish top of their respective tables and qualify for the final. The women’s and men’s gold medal matches will take place at 12.45pm and 2pm today.
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