Taiwanese badminton heroes Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin yesterday booked a place in the men’s doubles final at the Paris Olympics.
The world No. 12 pair defeated Danish duo Anders Skaarup Rasmussen and Kim Astrup 18-21, 21-17, 21-10 to earn a second consecutive shot at gold after claiming the top prize at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago.
They face Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang in the final tomorrow after the Chinese pair defeated Malaysia’s Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik 21-19, 15-21, 21-17 in the other semi-final at La Chapelle Arena.
Photo: AP
On Thursday, Lee and Wang Chi-lin advanced to the semi-finals with a 21-14, 21-17 victory over Thai duo Supak Jomkoh and Kittinupong Kedren.
The 41-minute win extended the Taiwanese pair’s winning streak at the quadrennial international sports event to 10 matches — now 11 — and their head-to-head record against Jomkoh and Kedren to 6-0.
In the men’s singles, Chou Tien-chen was to play India’s Lakshya Sen in the quarter-finals after press time last night.
Photo: AFP
In table tennis, both remaining Taiwanese in the men’s and women’s singles events were eliminated in the quarter-finals.
Lin Yun-ju, who finished fourth in Tokyo three years ago, lost 4-3 to world No. 5 Felix Lebrun of France after a 56-minute marathon. The full score was 11-7, 7-11, 11-8, 4-11, 11-8, 8-11, 11-6.
World No. 8 Lin expressed regret over being overtaken after taking a 3-1 lead in the fifth game. Although he leveled the match in the sixth game, he conceded seven consecutive points to the 17-year-old at the beginning of the final game, paving the way for the loss.
Photo: AFP
Veteran Cheng I-ching was defeated 4-0 (11-7, 11-4, 19-17, 11-5) by China’s world No. 1 Sun Yingsha in 48 minutes.
Reiterating that she wanted “to win so badly,” Cheng thanked everyone for their support on Facebook, writing: “I want to win and show you Cheng I-ching is back after I found myself.”
She vowed to learn from the disappointment and said she would “never let [herself] defeat [herself] again.”
Photo: Reuters
The men’s team face Egypt in the round-of-16 on Monday, while the women’s team are to take on Australia on Tuesday.
In tennis, Hsieh Su-wei and Tsai Chia-yi were eliminated from the women’s doubles in the quarter-finals by Czech duo Karolina Muchova and Linda Noskova.
The 1-6, 6-4, 14-12 loss matched the 38-year-old Hsieh’s Olympic record in London, when she paired up with Chuang Chia-jung, but she was not satisfied with that.
Photo: Reuters
“My goal is to win a medal, not to break my record,” said Hsieh, who has won seven Grand Slam titles in women’s doubles.
Losing in the quarter-finals or semi-finals were the same to her because “the only thing I haven’t won is an Olympic gold,” she added.
“I might not be playing in the next edition, so I hope Tsai will win this medal next time,” she said.
In archery, three Taiwanese competed in the women’s individual event on Thursday, with veteran Lei Chien-ying advancing to the round-of-16, while Olympic newcomers Li Tsai-chi and Chiu Yi-ching were eliminated.
Lei, 34, outshot Ana Rendon Martinez of Colombia in three of four sets to secure a 7-1 victory, before upsetting world No. 1 Casey Kaufhold of the US in five sets for a 7-3 win, scoring a perfect 30 out of 30 in the final set.
In her fourth Olympic Games, Lei scored 652 points in the ranking round on July 25, placing 29th out of 64 competitors. Li was 40th and Chiu was 53rd.
Taiwan were eliminated in the mixed team event yesterday, with Lei and Tai Yu-hsuan losing in the first round to South Korea.
Zhang Bo-ya ran 11.99 seconds in the women’s 100m preliminaries, finishing third in heat 2 and qualifying for the next round.
She improved to a personal season-best time of 11.88 seconds, in her second race yesterday, but was well outside qualifying for the semi-finals.
In the pool, Han An-chi was disqualified in heat 2 of the women’s 200m individual medley.
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HARD TO SAY GOODBYE: After Coco Gauff dispatched Belinda Bencic in the fourth round, she wrote ‘RIP TikTok USA’ and drew a broken heart on a television camera lens Defending champion Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while compatriot Chan Hao-ching on Saturday dominated her opponents in the second round, as world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka swept into the quarter-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia toppled Hungary’s Timea Babos and Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US 6-4, 6-3, hitting 24 winners and converting three of seven break points in 1 hour, 18 minutes at 1573 Arena. Although rivals at last year’s Australian Open — where Hsieh and Belgium’s Elise Mertens beat Ostapenko and Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok 6-1, 7-5
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