Taiwanese table tennis player yesterday Tien Shiau-wen won the nation’s first medal at the Tokyo Paralympic Games: a bronze in the women’s singles class 10 event.
The 21-year-old first-time Paralympian began the day with a 3-1 victory against Merve Cansu Demir of Turkey in the quarter-finals.
In the semi-finals, she met the bronze medalist at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, Bruna Costa Alexandre of Brazil.
Photo courtesy of the Kaoshiung Sports Development Bureau
Tien won the first game 14-12, but Costa Alexandre came back to clinch the following three games 11-6, 12-10 and 11-7, winning the match and securing herself a place in the gold medal match scheduled for tomorrow.
Tien’s coach, Tsai Kuei-lan, on Friday said that Tien exceeded expectations when she won all three of her group matches, and she never showed the stage fright that many athletes experience when competing in their first major event.
Tien was the only one of the four Taiwanese table tennis players to reach a medal match at the Tokyo Games, after three others were eliminated on Friday.
From Wednesday, she is to compete in the women’s class 9-10 team event with Lin Tzu-yu.
Class 6-10 are standing classes in table tennis at the Paralympics, while class 1-5 are sitting classes for players in wheelchairs.
Taiwan sent of 10 athletes to the Tokyo Paralympics and several of them have finished competition, including a six-time Paralympian, 45-year-old powerlifter Lin Ya-hsuan, who finished seventh in the women’s under-61kg weight class.
Also yesterday, 30-year-old Liu Ya-ting finished sixth in the women’s standing javelin final with a distance of 32.44m, her best of the season.
In swimming, 19-year-old Chen Liang-da is to race today and tomorrow.
With badminton matches to begin on Wednesday, 22-year-old Fang Jen-yu is to compete in the men’s singles SU5 event for athletes who can stand, but have an upper limb impairment.
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
After fleeing Sudan when civil war erupted, Al-Hilal captain Mohamed Abdelrahman and his teammates have defied the odds to reach the CAF Champions League quarter-finals. They are today to face title-holders Al-Ahly of Egypt in Cairo, with the return match in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, on Tuesday next week. Al-Hilal and biggest domestic rivals Al-Merrikh relocated to Mauritania after a power struggle broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary force. The civil war has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced more than 12 million people, according to the UN. The Democratic Republic of the Congo-born Al-Hilal
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