Taiwanese athletes yesterday and on Saturday edged closer to winning a medal in a strong showing in the first two days of the Paris Olympics.
Taiwanese badminton ace Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎) defeated Belgium’s Lianne Tan in the group stage of the women’s singles yesterday.
Although Tai has not played in any professional competitions in the past three months due to injuries and Olympic preparations, the Taiwanese dispatched Tan in a swift 38 minutes, winning 21-15, 21-14.
Photo: CNA
It was Tai’s third consecutive career victory over Tan.
The 30-year-old Taiwanese was next to play longtime friend and rival, Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon, in the group stage.
Per Olympic rules, the first-place athlete in each group advances, but because Tai is in a group with other top-seeded players, the winner of her group advances directly to the quarter-finals.
Photo: AP
In other badminton competition, Tokyo Olympic gold medalists Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) and Lee Yang (李洋) opened their men’s doubles campaign with a 21-16, 21-10 victory over Japan’s Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi.
The Taiwanese are today to play Denmark’s Anders Skaarup Rasmussen and Kim Astrup in the next group game.
Meanwhile, Ye Hong-wei (葉宏蔚) and Lee Chia-hsin (李佳馨) lost their mixed doubles opener 21-13, 21-13 to Hong Kong’s Tang Chun Man (鄧俊文) and Tse Ying Suet (謝影雪).
Photo: Reuters
They would have to beat Japan’s Yuta Watanabe and Arisa Higashino after press time last night to have a chance of advancing to the next round.
Taiwan’s female archery delegation yesterday defeated the US 5-1 to advance to the quarter-finals.
However, last night, archers Chiu Yi-ching (邱意晴), Lei Chien-ying (雷千瑩) and Li Tsai-chi (李彩綺) lost to South Korea.
Photo: Reuters
On Saturday, despite having a home advantage, French paddlers Alexis Lebrun and Yuan Jianan (袁嘉楠) fell 4-2 to Taiwan’s Lin Yun-ju (林昀儒) and Chen Szu-yu (陳思羽) in mixed-doubles table tennis.
Taiwan won 11-9, 9-11, 11-5, 12-10, 11-2, 11-7 to advance to the quarter-finals.
In the men’s gymnastics qualifying round for the Olympics, Taiwan’s “King of Cat,” the nation’s horizontal bar standout Tang Chia-hung (唐嘉鴻), advanced to the “all-around finals” after achieving the second-highest score of 14.933.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
He was awarded 6.3 for degree of difficulty and 8.633 for execution.
Tokyo bronze medalist Huang Hsiao-wen (黃筱雯) advanced to the round of 16 in the women’s 54kg (bantamweight) boxing division after defeating Montenegro’s Bojana Gojkovic by unanimous decision.
However, Tokyo Olympics judo silver medalist Yang Yung-wei (楊勇緯) lost out on the chance to vie for Olympic bronze in the men’s under-60kg event after being defeated by Japan’s Ryuju Nagayama by waza-ari in the repechage.
As the No. 1 seed, Yang passed the round of 32 on a bye and outlasted Italy’s Andrea Carlino in the “golden score,” before heading into the repechage following his loss to Yeldos Smetov of Kazakhstan in the quarter-final.
However, the 26-year-old Yang failed to secure victory over Nagayama, whom he had lost to in all their previous four matches.
Judoka Lin Chen-hao (林真豪) was also knocked out in the round of 16 in the women’s under-48kg division by Abiba Abuzhakynova of Kazakhstan.
Lin Chen-hao, 26, who finished seventh in Tokyo, left the court with tears in her eyes.
Taiwan’s last chance of winning a medal in the sport lies with veteran Lien Chen-ling (連珍羚). The Hangzhou Asian Games gold medalist is to compete in the women’s under-57kg event today.
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