Taiwan weightlifter Chen Shih-chien, the nation’s flagbearer at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, claimed the bronze medal in the men’s over-105kg category at the Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea, yesterday to increase the nation’s medal haul to 15.
Chen lifted 191kg in the snatch and 233kg in the clean and jerk to post 424kg, just a kilogram behind silver medalist Ai Yunan of China.
Iraq’s Behdad Salimikordasiabi won the gold after lifting a combined total of 465kg to break the Games record.
Photo: Reuters
Taiwan’s golfers opened up a seven-shot lead in the men’s team competition after the completion of the second round.
Pan Cheng-tsung, Yu Chun-an, Kao Teng and Wang Wei-lun posted a team total of 408, seven shots ahead of South Korea in second place and nine shots ahead of third-placed Thailand.
In the men’s individual competition, Pan was second on nine-under 135, two shots behind leader Youm Eun-ho of South Korea, while Yu was tied for third a shot further back and Kao was in fifth on seven-under 137.
Pan began playing golf at the age of five and in 2007, at the age of 15, he left his parents and five siblings to further his golf career in the US, despite not speaking any English.
He settled in Florida and attended the prestigious Leadbetter Golf Academy in Bradenton.
Last year, he was ranked the No. 1 amateur golfer in the world by World Amateur Golf Ranking, the first Taiwanese golfer to attain the ranking.
In the archery recurve men’s individual quarter-finals, Taiwan’s Kuo Cheng-wei advanced to the semi-finals after a 6-4 victory over North Korea’s Pak Yong-won after shooting eight bull’s-eyes.
In the men’s volleyball, Taiwan edged Kazakhstan 3-2 in their final match in Group A following two 3-0 defeats, while the men’s handball team fell to a 29-19 loss to Qatar.
In the quarter-finals of the women’s soccer competition, Taiwan lost 1-0 to the hosts. South Korea had 21 shots, 10 on target, but Taiwan managed to hold out until Jeon Gaeu scored for the hosts in the 73rd minute.
In the third round of the men’s singles tennis, top seed Lu Yen-hsun defeated Thailand’s Pruchya Isarow 6-0, 6-3 in 50 minutes, while fellow Taiwanese Wang Yeu-tzuoo beat Uzbekistan’s Sanjar Fayziev 6-1, 6-1 in 1 hour, 5 minutes.
In the second round of the men’s doubles, Wang and Lee Hsin-han defeated Thai duo Isarow and Nuttanon Kadchapanan 6-2, 6-2, while fellow Taiwanese pairing Chen Ti and Peng Hsien-yin beat Indonesian duo Chris Rungkat and Elbert Sie 6-4, 6-4.
In the third round of the women’s singles, Taiwan’s Hsu Chieh-yu defeated Nigina Abduraimova of Uzbekistan 6-4, 7-6 (7/4), but fellow Taiwanese Lee Pei-chi exited after a 6-2, 6-1 loss to Japan’s Misa Eguchi.
In the second round of the women’s doubles, Taiwanese gold medalists Hsieh Su-wei and Chan Chin-wei defeated Chinese duo Wang Qiang and Liu Fangzhou 6-2, 6-0 in 42 minutes.
There were mixed results for Taiwan in the first round of the mixed doubles, with Peng and Chan Hao-ching cruising past Eudice Chong and Yeung Pak-long of Hong Kong 6-2, 6-1 in 52 minutes, while Lu and Hsieh exited after they were beaten 6-2, 4-6, 10-6 by South Korean pairing Han Nai-ae and Kim Cheong-eui.
Meanwhile, superheavyweight Olympic champion Zhou Lulu hoisted the largest single weight ever by a woman to give China a seventh Asian Games weightlifting gold — and then said the lift was only “so-so.”
She broke Russian Tatiana Kashrina’s world record in the clean and jerk by 2kg with 192kg and equaled the Russian’s combined record of 334kg, both set last year. Zhou put on a one-woman show in the over-75 class, eclipsing her London 2012 total of 333kg, which was also a world record at the time.
She then said she could have done better.
“I’m not satisfied with that. It was only so-so,” she told reporters after lifting 142kg in the first discipline, 4kg below her Olympic performance. “I’m disappointed that I didn’t perform well in the snatch.”
“I just feel normal. There’s nothing special about breaking the world record,” she said.
Zhou, who weighs in at a mammoth 140kg, saw off second-placed Mariya Grabovetskaya of Kazakhstan and bronze medalist Thailand’s Chitchanok Pulsabsakul with ease at Incheon’s Moonlight Festival Gardens.
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College basketballer Kaitlyn Chen (陳凱玲) has become the first player of Taiwanese descent to be drafted by a WNBA team, after being selected by the Golden State Valkyries in the third and final round of the league's draft yesterday. Chen, a point guard who played her first three seasons in college for Princeton University, transferred to the University of Connecticut (UConn) for her final season, which culminated in a national championship on April 6. While at Princeton, Chen was named the Ivy League tournament's most outstanding player three times from 2022 to last year. Prior to the draft, ESPN described Chen as a
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