Taiwan bagged four gold medals, five silvers and five bronze at the East Asian Games yesterday after a drought of three days, moving up to fifth place in the standings from seventh place on Wednesday.
Chang Kai-chen beat China’s Zzhang Shuai 4-6, 7-6, 6-2 to win the women’s tennis singles finals and clinch the gold medal.
Taiwan won gold as well as silver in the mixed doubles, where Chuang Chia-jung and Yi Chu-huan defeated their compatriots Hsieh Su-wei and Lee Hsin-han 6-3, 6-7, 7-5.
PHOTO: AFP
Chuang Chia-jung and Hsieh Su-wei also won gold in the women’s doubles tennis, defeating Kim So-jung and Lee Jin-a of South Korea.
Earlier in the day, Yi Chu-huan and Lee Hsin-han had to settle for silver in the men’s doubles after they were defeated by a Chinese pair, Zeng Shaoxuan and Zhang Ze, 4-6, 6-7, (4-7).
In the pool, Taiwan’s Cheng Wan-jung broke the dominance of Japan and China as she came from behind in the final lap to take the women’s 400m individual medley gold in a Games record time of 4 minutes, 40.21 seconds.
PHOTO: AFP
All the swimming golds up to that point at the Games had been claimed by swimmers from China or Japan.
Cheng, 18, who said she had recently thought about quitting swimming altogether, even surprised herself.
“Before the East Asian Games I thought maybe I could win a medal, but I didn’t think about a gold medal,” she said.
PHOTO: AFP
Also yesterday, Huang Ho-hsun finished second in the individual road race for women, winning silver.
In a photo finish, Huang and three others crossed the line together, clocking 2 hours, 43 minutes and 41 seconds, but the gold went to Chinese cyclist Liu Xiaohui.
China yesterday snapped up seven of the 10 track and field gold medals on offer in the first athletics action at the Games.
PHOTO: REUTERS
A sell-out 3,500 crowd saw China comfortably stretch their lead over Japan and South Korea at the top of the medals table, and yet more success later in the swimming saw the Chinese gold medal tally swell past the 50 mark.
Marloon Herrera was crying — happy tears. With Cuba trailing in the fifth inning of its Little League World Series (LLWS) opener on Thursday, Herrera lined a two-run double to give his team the lead. When the Czech Republic, representing Europe-Africa, made a pitching change, he ran over to give his third base coach a hug. Cuba went on to win 4-1. It was the first game at this year’s tournament for both sides, but it was also the beginning of Cuba’s second appearance in the series ever — and it was emotional. “You breathe baseball in Cuba,” manager Everaldo Machado said on
Taiwan on Friday beat Australia 11-0 at the Little League World Series in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Taiwan are represented at the tournament by Taoyuan’s Gueishan Elementary School, who won the Asia-Pacific regional tournament to earn the trip to the US. Australia are represented by the Hills Red team from Sydney. Taiwan advanced to a game tomorrow against Santa Clara, representing Cuba, who won 4-1 against the Czech Republic’s Brno, the Europe-Africa regional qualifiers. Australian starter Sayre Howick had a tough time controlling his pitches at Volunteer Stadium, one of which allowed Taiwan to open their account. They scored six in the inning and
World Boxing, an international amateur boxing organization formed last year after a breakdown in relations between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Boxing Association (IBA), has announced the admission of Taiwan, along with four other nations, into its growing list of members. In a statement released on its Web site on Friday, the Swiss- based organization said that in addition to Taiwan, admitted as Chinese Taipei, Bhutan, Ecuador, Fiji and Pakistan have also become members. The new members all have well-rounded national and international boxing programs as well as transparency in the leadership and management of their national boxing programs,
COOLED DOWN: Du Plessis apologized after the fight for comments about his Nigerian-born opponent, after Adesanya said he planned to take the belt back to Africa South African Dricus du Plessis yesterday took a flurry of body hits across four rounds before defeating Israel Adesanya by submission to retain his middleweight championship at UFC 305. After scoring some early takedowns, Du Plessis (22-2) had to withstand a flurry of body strikes from Adesanya through the middle rounds, which appeared to be taking a toll on the 30-year-old South African as the fight progressed. However, a left hook followed by three rights helped bring Adesanya down, giving Du Plessis the opening he wanted as he swiftly got the choke hold that forced the Nigerian-born New Zealander to tap out