Euphoria at winning initial matches turned to tears in defeat as Taiwan’s taekwondo competitors on Friday crashed out of contention in Rio de Janeiro.
Chuang Chia-chia and Liu Wei-ting were both foiled in their dream of Olympic medal glory.
Earlier in the day, Taiwanese fans and officials were overjoyed at their success in the early stages of the competition.
Photo: EPA
In the round of 16, Chuang powered her way to a 16-2 victory over Cansel Deniz of Kazakhstan in the women’s 67kg event.
The happy cheers and celebration continued as Liu triumphed 14-2 over Aaron Cook of Moldova in the men’s 80kg round of 16.
Chuang and Liu were confident before their events began, with each promising to bring home a medal.
Local sports media rated them high on the list of contenders for gold or silver, priming fans to see the nation’s medal haul grow.
However, such ambitions were dashed after some hard-fought, close-range combat and flying-kick battles against competitors who have progressed in leaps and bounds over the past four years.
In the quarter-finals, Liu was knocked out of the competition after taking a conservative, defensive style. He was beaten by Oussama Oueslati of Tunisia 1-0 in a tie-breaker to take a golden-point win.
Liu finished ninth.
“It is a shame to lose this way, such a sudden way to get eliminated in the Olympics... I just have to put this behind me and train better for the next Olympics,” Liu said.
Next up was the women’s quarter-finals, where Oh Hye-ri of South Korea defeated Chuang on points 21-9, although Chuang — with one loss — still reached the medal round via a repechage.
Taiwan’s final taekwondo hope fought well for a 4-1 victory over Melissa Pagnotta of Canada to set up a bronze-medal bout against Nur Tatar of Turkey.
Chuang led by three points in the early phases, but Tatar finished stronger and the Turk takes home bronze, winning 7-3.
After the match, tears were flowing as Chuang spoke to reporters.
“I was leading, but lost concentration in the end and did not defend against the close-combat kicks. It is a bitter disappointment to lose this way, but I really gave it my best effort and have enjoyed the experience here,” she said. “It was regrettable that I could not add another medal for our Taiwan national team.”
The results marked the worst showing for Taiwan’s taekwondo team since the sport was first held at an Olympics in Sydney in 2000.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
Matvei Michkov did not score on Monday, but the Philadelphia rookie had a hand in both goals as hosts the Flyers earned a 2-1 victory over the Nashville Predators. Ryan Poehling and Jamie Drysdale got the goals for the Flyers (31-36-9, 71 points), who won their third straight. Michkov and Travis Konecny assisted on both. Ivan Fedotov stopped 28 shots to earn his first win since March 1, ending a personal six-game losing streak. Zachary L’Heureux got the lone goal for Nashville. Michael McCarron and Brady Skjei got the assists for the Predators (27-39-8, 62 points), who have just four goals in their