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.
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