Three Taiwanese track-and-field athletes, including javelin thrower Cheng Chao-tsun, yesterday fell short in their bids to advance at the Tokyo Olympics.
Cheng, one of only 20 javelin throwers in history to break 90m and considered one of Taiwan’s best hopes for winning an athletics medal in Japan, was clearly not at his best as he struggled to reach 70m in the qualification round.
He finished 30th out of 32 competitors in the two qualifying groups with a throw of 71.2m, well short of the 82.4m needed to advance to the final.
Photo: AP
“I again failed to get past the qualification hurdle,” as has been the case at previous international competitions, Cheng said disappointedly following the event.
The year-long postponement of the Olympics put him at a disadvantage because he was at his peak in 2019 and last year, Cheng said.
The 27-year-old etched his place in history at the 2017 Taipei Summer Universiade with a stunning throw of 91.36m.
Photo: Reuters
Having won gold at the 2019 Asian Games with a throw of 86.72m and finished 10th at the 2019 World Championships with a throw of 77.99m, Cheng had hoped for more at the Tokyo Games.
After a disappointing finish in Tokyo, Cheng said he would probably make his last appearance at the Asian Games next year before retiring.
Taiwan’s other javelin thrower competing in Tokyo, Huang Shih-feng, outperformed his more celebrated teammate with a throw of 77.16m to finish 25th overall.
Photo: AP
Other big names in the sport, including 2016 Olympic silver medalist Julius Yego of Kenya and 2019 World Championships gold medalist Anderson Peters of Grenada, also failed to qualify.
In the hurdles yesterday, Taiwan’s Chen Kuei-ru failed to advance to the final of the men’s 110m hurdles.
Chen, making his first Olympic appearance at 27 years old, was eliminated in the semi-finals after finishing sixth in his heat with a time of 13.57 seconds.
Photo: AFP
The semi-finals had three heats of eight runners, with only the top two finishers in each heat advancing to the finals, along with the two runners with the best times.
The slowest time to qualify was 13.32 seconds.
Chen’s time of 13.53 seconds in the opening heats on Tuesday would have been good enough to book him a spot in the semi-finals.
Chen — who holds the record in Taiwan for the 110m hurdles with 13.34 seconds — is the first Taiwanese to qualify for an Olympic 110m hurdles semi-final in 37 years, after Wu Chin-jing reached the semi-final at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.
After the race yesterday, a tearful Chen said that he regretted not doing better.
While he had hoped to compete in the 2024 Paris Games, Chen said that he was not sure he would have the chance due to his age.
In weightlifting yesterday, Taiwan’s Hsieh Yun-ting failed to advance in the men’s +109kg event.
Although Hsieh successfully attempted 172kg in the snatch and 206kg in the clean and jerk, giving him a total of 378kg, the effort was not enough to raise him to the top of his group.
The leader of Group B, Hungary’s Peter Nagy, successfully attempted 178kg in the snatch and 218 in the clean and jerk, giving him a total of 396kg.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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