In Olympic qualifying yesterday, Taiwan’s men’s table tennis team triumphed over Egypt in Paris to secure a spot in the quarter-finals.
In the men’s team event, three-player teams play a doubles match followed by two singles matches. If neither side sweeps the initial three-match series, teams play a maximum of two singles matches as a tiebreaker.
Led by table tennis veteran Chuang Chih-yuan, Taiwan’s team also includes Lin Yun-ju and Kao Cheng-jui.
Photo: Reuters
Chuang and Kao won the doubles match 10-12, 11-13, 11-9, 11-6, 11-8 against Egypt’s Khalid Assar and Youssef Abdel-Aziz.
Lin then defeated Mohamed el-Beiali 11-7, 12-10, 11-7 to give Taiwan a two-match lead.
Kao ensured Taiwan’s victory by beating Youssef Abdel-Aziz 12-10, 9-11, 11-6, 11-9.
The Taiwanese paddlers are to face either Japan or Australia in the quarterfinals.
Meanwhile, Peng Ming-yang did not finish his men’s 400m hurdles heat, and as a result, did not qualify for the semi-finals.
On Sunday, an injured Lin Yu-tang did not manage to qualify for the final in his men’s long jump Olympic debut.
The 24-year-old, whose personal best is 8.4m, jumped 7.7m on his first attempt, but fouled on his second jump before landing 7.66m with his final try.
Lin said that he was competing with a left knee injury and felt a twinge when he jumped.
“Now that I’ve come, I wanted to give it a try,” he said.
His experience at last year’s World Athletic Championships in Budapest had prepared him well for top-tier competitions such as the Games, and he would learn from his failure in Paris to perform better at the world championships next year, Lin told ELTA TV.
In the men’s and women’s kayak cross heats, Wu Shao-hsuan and Chang Chu-han failed to qualify for their respective quarter-finals.
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