On the last day of competition for the Taiwanese team, Chang Yao-chien (張堯茜) won a fourth gold in women’s bowling, while Wen Chih-hsuan (溫智璇) took home the nation’s 11th gold medal at the Deaflympics.
The crowd at Taipei Arena went wild with joy as table tennis player Wen draped the Chinese Taipei Olympic flag across his back and ran across the arena to a heroic welcome from fans after his victory.
Wen defeated Chinese opponent Wang Cong (王聰) 4-0 yesterday after beating Ukrainian Gennadii Zakladnyi by the same score in the semifinals.
PHOTO: WANG MIN-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES
Wen and Zakladnyi had faced off in the Men’s table tennis doubles event before.
Wen’s coach Huang Mei-jen (黃美珍) told reporters after the match that she thought Wen had played well.
However, “I told him that he needs to add some variety [to his shots] to confuse his opponent,” Huang said.
“Overall, he is very patient and was in good physical condition today and returned each ball with care. He employed all the strategies I told him to,” she said.
Regarding Wen’s opponent in the finals, Huang said Wang’s coach had told her that Wang “could not possibly beat Wen.”
Wen said after game he had felt intimidated facing a left-handed opponent, but was relieved when the game was over.
“I just wanted to go home,” Wen said.
Wen’s teammate Yang Jung-Tsung (楊榮宗) was eliminated in the quarterfinals.
Meanwhile, Chang won her fourth gold yesterday, scoring 3,132 points in the Women’s bowling masters finals. The silver and bronze in the event went to Toshiko Matsukiyo of Japan and Berti Themis of Greece respectively.
Chang’s victory was determined in the first game, when three strikes in a row and another strike toward the end brought her score to 225.
Matsukiyo scored 145 points in the first game. Although she beat Chang in the second game 186-161, the margin was not enough to overcome her loss in the first game.
In total, Taiwan took home five golds, three silvers and one bronze in bowling events.
Yesterday was the last day of competition for Taiwan’s athletes, who won a total of 11 gold, 11 silver and 11 bronze medals.
Four years ago, Taiwan took home nine gold, four silver and three bronze medals from the Melbourne Deaflympics.
Chao Yu-ping (趙玉平) of the Chinese Taipei Sports Association of the Deaf (CTSAD), the chief of Taiwan’s delegation, said the team had set a goal of 12 golds for Taipei, but he praised the athletes for doing their best.
Taipei Deaflympics Organizing Committee CEO Emile Sheng (盛治仁) said 91 Deaflympic records and 47 world records had been broken in Taipei.
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