Taiwanese boxer Chen Nien-chin and archer Lin Chia-en had their hopes of Olympic podium finishes dashed yesterday after losing in the quarter-finals and round-of-16 of their respective events. Chen, 24, who was participating in her second Games, lost to Lovlina Borgohain of India in a split 4-1 decision in the women’s welter (64-69kg) category quarter-final bout at Kokugikan Arena in Tokyo. In the opening round, Chen was able to throw several effective punches against Borgohain as she pinned her opponent against the ropes, but she still lost the round by a combined 48-47 on the five judges’ cards. The Indian boxer came back strong in the second round, overpowering the Taiwanese, and she successfully went on to win the three-round match on a split decision that Chen felt was fair. “Today, the opponent came well prepared and won,” Chen said after the bout, adding that she had no regrets over the outcome. “You win some and you lose some,” Chen said, feeling some satisfaction in improving on her performance at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro when she only reached the round-of-16. The Taiwanese boxer said she would now aim for the next Olympics, which are to take place in Paris in 2024. “I’m still young and I will never give up boxing,” Chen said. Chen’s fate was shared by her Taiwanese teammate Wu Shih-yi in the round-of-16 of the women’s light (57-60kg) category, who fell to a 5-0 defeat to Brazil’s Beatriz Ferreira. Archer Lin’s run in Tokyo was cut short by an American in the round-of-16 of the women’s individual event. She was beaten by fifth seed Mackenzie Brown 6-2 in a four-set match held at Yumenoshima Final Field. Lin simply could not match her opponent’s consistency. Brown scored a 27 and three 28s in her four sets (each set consists of three arrows with a maximum
Shooters Wu Chia-ying and Tien Chia-chen yesterday finished fifth and eighth respectively in the women’s 25m pistol competition, becoming the first Taiwanese to reach the final of an Olympic shooting event. To reach the eight-person final, the pair first recorded identical scores of 584 out of 600 in a two-day, 44-person qualifying round comprised of both precision and rapid-style shooting. In the final, shooters competed in a series of up to 10 five-shot rounds scored on a hit-or-miss basis, rather than a points-based system. After the fourth round, the person with the fewest hits was eliminated in each round. Tien — who at 37 is the only mother in Taiwan’s Olympic squad — fell first in the final, placing 10 out of 20 shots within the 50mm 10th ring on the target to finish eighth. Wu, 28, advanced to the seventh round, but was eliminated in a shoot-out after tying with Bulgaria’s Antoaneta Kostadinova at 23 hits each. She finished in fifth place. Despite falling short of a medal, Wu and her coach, Kuo Meng-hsi, said they were delighted that she scored a career-best 584 to reach the final round, improving on her previous top score of 582. “I did my best, I have no regrets,” Wu said. Tien had already turned her thoughts homeward after the competition, telling reporters: “I want to take a nice break and spend some time with my daughter.” In golf, Taiwan’s C.T. Pan was tied for 39th place on one-under when play was suspended in the second round of the men’s individual stroke play. Pan was four-under for the day through 15 holes before bad weather saw the remainder of the second round rescheduled for this morning. In rowing, Taiwan’s Huang Yi-ting finished second in final D of the women’s single sculls at Sea Forest Waterway. Huang posted a time of 7 minutes, 52.18 seconds, 4.12 seconds
Weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz, who won the Philippines’ first-ever Olympic gold medal this week, on Thursday said that she has fond memories of training in Kaohsiung in 2019 and feels like she has family there. In an online interview organized by the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines, Diaz said she visited Taiwan twice in 2019 so she could concentrate on her training without being distracted by friends and invitations to socialize. “I feel like I have also family there,” she said, adding that she did her training sessions at Gushan Senior High School in Kaohsiung. Diaz, who claimed gold in the under-55kg class in Tokyo on Tuesday, said that she had intended to return to Taiwan a third time to continue her training, but her plans were upended when the nation closed its borders because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and she went to Malaysia instead. Taiwan is “really a good place to train,” the 30-year-old said, adding that she was inspired to do her best because children in Kaohsiung looked up to her. In addition, she got to train with Taiwanese weightlifter Kuo Hsing-chun, who won a gold medal in the women’s under-59kg class on Tuesday. “It was really nice to be there, and all the coaches were really good and cool,” Diaz said. “The food in Kaohsiung was also great. That’s why I really love it there.” Diaz said that she has been invited to revisit Taiwan and she would love to do so with other Philippine athletes to exchange knowledge and build friendships. In a statement on Wednesday, Gushan Senior High School congratulated Diaz for winning the gold medal and setting an Olympic record on Monday, when she lifted a combined weight of 224kg. School principal Chuang Fu-tai and head coach Wu Ming-tung said that Diaz had been training on the school campus in 2019 from July
GOLF Taiwan event canceled The Taiwan Swinging Skirts LPGA tournament planned for Oct. 28 to 31 has been canceled because of COVID-19 issues, the LPGA Tour announced on Thursday. It said the move was made upon the advice of the government due to ongoing COVID-19 concerns and border restrictions. “The LPGA Tour and Swinging Skirts remain committed in the event’s return to the 2022 tour schedule,” the LPGA said in a statement. The tournament was to have been the third event in a four-stop Asian swing for the LPGA, with events planned for Oct. 14 to 17 in Shanghai; Oct. 21 to 24 in Busan, South Korea; and Nov. 4 to 7 in Japan. Nelly Korda of the US won the Taiwan LPGA event in 2018 and 2019. Last year’s tournament was also canceled due to the pandemic. SOCCER US, Mexico to contest final Substitute Gyasi Zardes scored in the 86th minute and Matt Turner made three saves as the US defeated Asian champions Qatar 1-0 on Thursday to reach their 12th Gold Cup final. Zardes collaborated with fellow substitute Nicholas Gioacchini for the game’s only goal in a contest that highlighted the hosts’ steady improvement throughout the tournament. “Niko made a great run and got a nice through-ball,” Zardes said. “I just had to crash the box.” The US are to play tomorrow’s final in Las Vegas against reigning champions Mexico, who needed a stoppage-time goal to beat short-handed Canada 2-1 in the other semi-final. BASKETBALL Westbrook joins Lakers Russell Westbrook has joined LeBron James and Anthony Davis at the Los Angeles Lakers in a blockbuster NBA trade deal with the Washington Wizards, reports said on Thursday. The 32-year-old guard joins playmaker James and dominant big man Davis, with hopes of a “Big Three” lineup making the Lakers a title threat next season. The deal reportedly sends
‘BOSS CHARACTER’: Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin said they had ‘crawled out of hell’ and have nothing to lose in a match against the world’s No. 2 pairing
Badminton duo Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin made history in Tokyo yesterday by becoming the first Taiwanese shuttlers to advance to an Olympics semi-final after they edged their Japanese rivals in the quarter-finals of the men’s doubles. The world No. 3 Taiwanese duo defeated Hiroyuki Endo and Yuta Watanabe 21-16, 21-19 in 44 minutes at the Musashino Forest Plaza. By reaching the final four, the pair have recorded Taiwan’s best ever showing in Olympic badminton, surpassing a quarter-finals finish by Lee Sheng-mu and Fang Chieh-min in the men’s doubles at the London Games in 2012. After clinching the hard-earned victory, Lee dropped to his knees while clenching his fists in celebration. The pair got off to a bumpy start in their Olympic journey last week after they were upset by a world No. 10 duo from India in their opening group match. However, they bounced back by defeating Britain before upsetting the world’s top-ranked men’s doubles team from Indonesia, earning a 2-1 record in Group A and qualifying for the final eight knockout round. Lee and Wang said that it has been an incredible journey at the Games thus far. It is “as if we have just crawled out of hell,” Wang said. After losing their opening match, they felt they had nothing to lose and were thus free of pressure, he said. They face world No. 2 pair Mohammad Ashan and Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia today, with the winners to compete for gold. Lee and Wang said that they would focus on defense in today’s match, which they compared to “fighting a boss character” in a video game. The Taiwanese duo have a 4-6 record against their opponents. In the men’s singles, Wang Tzu-wei was eliminated in the round-of-16, losing 16-21, 14-21 in 46 minutes against Viktor Axelsen of Denmark. Additional reporting by staff writer
Taiwanese boxer Huang Hsiao-wen yesterday won her opening bout in the women’s 48-51kg flyweight category at the Tokyo Olympics, earning a spot in the quarter-finals. The 23-year-old, who is competing in her first Olympics, beat Italy’s Giordana Sorrentino with a 5-0 decision in their round-of-16 bout. Huang began on a strong note, using constant lateral movement and never allowing her opponent to dictate the pace. She took the first round 48-47 on the five judges’ cards. Keeping up the tempo, the young Taiwanese stayed on top in the next two rounds, posting scores of 50-45, 50-45 over her Italian opponent at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo. It was Huang’s first bout in Tokyo. In the quarter-finals on Sunday, she faces Nina Radovanovic of Serbia, who defeated Burundi’s Ornella Havyarimana 5-0. In archery, Taiwan’s Tang Chih-chun and Lin Chia-en advanced to the men’s and women’s individual round of eight respectively. Tang defeated compatriot Wei Chun-heng 6-5 to advance. Tang and Wei, who on Monday won silver together in the men’s team event, faced off after Tang trounced Vietnamese Hoang Phi Vu Nguyen 7-1 in their 1/32 elimination match in the men’s individual competition and Wei bested Daniel Castro of Spain 6-2. After five sets, the two Taiwanese were tied at 5-5, but Tang scored a 10 in the shoot-out point to win the match, with Wei making a 9. Tang faces Itay Shanny of Israel in the 1/8 eliminations tomorrow. Deng Yu-cheng lost 4-6 to Atanu Das, the top men’s archer from India. In the women’s individual competition, Lin secured a place in the 1/8 eliminations today, when she is to face Mackenzie Brown of the US at the Yumenoshima Park Archery Field in Tokyo on the back of two wins yesterday. Lin defeated Evangelia Psarra of Greece 6-4 in the 1/32 and in the 1/16 knocked out Estonia’s Reena Parnat 7-3. Lin is the
Sifan Hassan’s schedule on the Olympic track looks more like a list of punishments drawn up by an angry physical education teacher. She has six distance races in eight days, consisting of three 1,500m runs, two 5,000m races and a 10,000m to top it off, with two of the races on the same day, and two others on back-to-back days. And do them all in the sapping heat and humidity of the Tokyo summer. “Crazy ideas,” Hassan said, acknowledging that the track itinerary she is considering verges on insanity. “But sometimes I’m just careless and I don’t care.” “Right now ... if you can see inside my mind, you will think I’m crazy or something,” she said. The proposed schedule is not the result of a whole lot of long-term planning either from the world champion in the 1,500m and 10,000m who was born in Ethiopia, but competes for the Netherlands. Rather, it was conceived after some unexpected late form in the 1,500m a few weeks ago. Hassan, who holds world records in the mile and 5km road race, and held the 10,000m record for two days last month, had initially planned to do a more reasonable, but still ridiculously hard 5,000m-10,000m double at the Tokyo Olympics. She got to thinking when she ran the second-fastest time this year in the 1,500m last month, even if it was in a loss to Olympic favorite Faith Kipyegon of Kenya. There was still enough from that performance in Monaco to suggest to Hassan that she might have a chance at a medal in all three in Tokyo. She is also second-fastest in the world in the 10,000m and is in the mix in the 5,000m. “This year I’m healthy, I’m in the best shape of my life, I have big dreams,” she said. “I’m in such good shape with these three events I
Overjoyed Fijians on Wednesday brushed aside a COVID-19 pandemic curfew and poured onto the streets of Suva to celebrate Olympic rugby sevens gold in an explosion of song, dance and fireworks. Children cheered and horns honked after the Pacific nation’s rugby heroes vanquished New Zealand 27-12 to retain the title. Fijians are obsessed with rugby. When the team won in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 — bagging the country’s first Olympic medal of any hue — the celebrations included a national holiday and a commemorative banknote issued by the Reserve Bank of Fiji. During each match of this campaign, every home with a television tuned in, and living rooms were often packed with neighbors who did not have one. A 6pm curfew is currently in place, aimed at arresting a virus outbreak that erupted in April. However, when the final whistle blew at Tokyo Stadium and the team ditched stuffy Olympic protocol to belt out a traditional polyphonic song from the podium, a nation erupted. More than three hours after the curfew began families poured from the houses to dance and sing, banging pots and pans and setting off fireworks. “Curfew starts at 6pm in Fiji but this is at 9.30pm after Fiji won gold at the #Olympics. What curfew?! Celebrations have started and Fijian people have forgotten about the COVID just for tonight,” former Fijian government official Monish Nand wrote on Twitter. Fiji sevens captain Jerry Tuwai dedicated the win to the “suffering” people back home. “They won’t be thinking about the pandemic now, they’ll be celebrating the gold medal,” Tuwai said. Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama said that the victory “was worth more than gold.” In the women’s competition, which began yesterday, Fiji lost to France 5-12, but beat Canada 26-12. Teams who won both of their matches yesterday were: Australia, France, New Zealand and the US. Additional reporting by staff writer
Shohei Ohtani on Wednesday continued his power display, crushing a three-run home run, while Phil Gosselin had a go-ahead RBI single in the eighth inning for the Los Angeles Angels, who rallied for an 8-7 victory over the Colorado Rockies. The Angels trailed early, but used a five-run fourth inning to jump ahead 6-3 and added another run in the fifth for a 7-3 advantage. The Rockies rallied with three runs in the seventh and another in the eighth to tie the game at 7-7, but Gosselin’s RBI single in the bottom of the eighth scored David Fletcher to set the final margin. Angels closer Raisel Iglesias (7-4) blew a save opportunity for the fifth time when he gave up a game-tying RBI single to Brendan Rodgers in the top of the eighth. He still earned the victory by recording five outs. The Angels won for the fifth time in their past seven games as Wednesday’s victory came without three of their better offensive performers in Mike Trout, Anthony Rendon and Jared Walsh, who are all on the injured list. “It’s interesting, it’s wonderful and when we get the whole band back together it’s gonna be fun to watch,” Angels manager Joe Maddon said. Ohtani “is definitely inspirational to the whole group.” Ohtani’s line-drive blast to right field off Rockies reliever Jesus Tenoco was his MLB-leading 37th of the season and his third in his past four games, including consecutive contests against the Rockies. It gave the Angels a 4-3 lead in the fourth. Justin Upton and Max Stassi also hit home runs for the Angels, who have won consecutive series and five of their past seven games. Los Angeles starter Andrew Heaney gave up three runs on four hits over six innings with three walks and eight strikeouts. Trailing 7-3, the Rockies rallied with three runs in the seventh inning
CLOSE CALL: In what was almost an upset, Brian Yang kept Chou Tien-chen on his toes for more than an hour, but the world No. 3 managed to hold on for the win
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday reminded the world why she is No. 1 when she had France’s Qi Xuefei struggling to match up through their 25-minute encounter. Tai, who beat Qi 21-10, 21-13, had a rough start to the Tokyo Olympics, taking longer to fend off two hugely inferior opponents earlier in the Games. The 27-year-old has a history of slipping up at the Olympics, despite performing exceptionally in other competitions. Tai, who became world No. 1 in 2016, has won the All England Open title three times and was a gold medalist at the 2018 Asian Games. “This is the first time I am getting to the top eight at the Olympics,” Tai said after the match. “Now the most important thing is to prepare.” Tai was barely tested in any of her three group matches, but looming is a much tougher encounter with the winner of tomorrow’s round-of-16 match between Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon, who has beaten Tai on multiple occasions, and Gregoria Tunjung of Indonesia. Asked whom she would want to face, Tai joked: “I just want them to play a long match. After that, either one will be fine with me.” Tai said that she has set her sights on winning her first Olympic medal in Tokyo, after bowing out in the round-of-16 in London in 2012 and Rio de Janeiro in 2016, but she knows the competition will become harder. “I will try hard to reduce my mistakes, but I do not care who I face,” she said. “I do know many people care about me, and I will do my best not to let them down.” There were 14 preliminary groups in the women’s singles, and the winners of 12 of the 14 groups are to play each other in the round-of-16, but Tai was given an automatic bye into
Taiwanese table tennis player Lin Yun-ju yesterday won in surprisingly commanding fashion to clinch a spot in the men’s singles semi-finals at the Tokyo Olympics and match Taiwan’s best ever performance in the event. Lin, seeded fifth, defeated 18th-seed Darko Jorgic of Slovenia 11-4, 11-7, 11-4, 11-6 in just 25 minutes. He dominated throughout, never trailing by more than two points in any of the four games. Jorgic had been expected to provide more resistance, having on Tuesday toppled the tournament’s third seed, Tomokazu Harimoto of Japan, but the Slovenian struggled to match Lin’s intensity and consistency. The victory puts the 19-year-old first-time Olympian in contention for a second medal in Tokyo, after he and partner Cheng I-ching took home bronze in the mixed doubles event on Monday. However, to earn a spot in the final, he must beat world No. 1 Fan Zhendong of China today. Fan scored a 4-0 victory against 10th-seeded Jeoung Young-sik of South Korea yesterday. In reaching the semi-finals, Lin has tied Chuang Chih-yuan’s fourth-place finish at the 2012 London Games for the best performance by a Taiwanese player in the men’s singles competition. The day did not go so well for other Taiwanese competitors. In archery, Lei Chien-ying was defeated 4-6 by Ukraine’s Veronika Marchenko in the women’s individual round-of-32. In shooting, Yang Kun-pi failed to qualify in the men’s trap, as he placed 21st and only the top six could progress. In swimming, Wang Hsing-Hao was not among the best 16 in the men’s 200 individual medley who made it to the semi-finals. Taiwan’s Tang Chia-hung and Lee Chih-kai competed in the men’s individual all-round artistic gymnastics final last night. Tang placed seventh overall, while Lee placed 21st.
US superstar Simone Biles yesterday pulled out of a second Tokyo Olympics gymnastics competition to protect her mental health, raising serious doubt over her participation in the rest of the Games. A day after her shock exit from the team event, USA Gymnastics said the 24-year-old had also withdrawn from the individual all-around competition at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre. The American arrived in Japan as one of the headline acts of the Games, shouldering an immense weight of expectation as she pursued a record-equaling nine career Olympic titles. However, she withdrew from the team competition after a shaky opening vault, and her struggles mean she might be unable to add to the four gold medals she won at the Rio de Janeiro Games in 2016. “After further medical evaluation, Simone Biles has withdrawn from the final individual all-around competition at the Tokyo Olympic Games, in order to focus on her mental health,” USA Gymnastics wrote in a statement. The US federation said a decision on whether Biles, who is to be replaced by Jade Carey, would compete in individual event finals would be taken following daily evaluation. “We wholeheartedly support Simone’s decision and applaud her bravery in prioritizing her well-being,” the statement said. “Her courage shows, yet again, why she is a role model for so many.” After pulling out of the team event on Tuesday, in which she won a silver as a result of starting the final, Biles said that she had to “do what’s right for me and focus on my mental health.” “I just don’t trust myself as much as I used to, and I don’t know if it’s age,” she said. “I’m a little bit more nervous when I do gymnastics.” Support for the gymnast poured in from around the world following her withdrawal from the team final. “Am I good enough? Yes, I am.
For Taiwanese weightlifter Kuo Hsing-chun, winning a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics on Tuesday should have been the pinnacle of a storied career, and yet she felt a mixed bag of emotions. Relief that she had finally chased down an Olympic gold medal at her third Summer Games, regret that she had not managed to break her own world record and a growing resolve to compete in Paris in 2024 to achieve what she said would be a “perfect score.” With Kuo’s closest rivals in her weight class either sidelined by injury, COVID-19 concerns or strategic decisions, the event was as much a coronation as a competition. Her first attempt in the snatch at 100kg came after the rest of the field had exhausted their lifts, and when Kuo successfully hoisted 125kg in her first attempt in the clean and jerk, the gold was hers. Her second attempt of 133kg was also a success, but she failed in her final attempt at 141kg to break her world record of 140kg, set at the 2019 World Weightlifting Championships in Pattaya, Thailand. Speaking after the competition, Kuo said her Olympic gold had “completed the last piece in the jigsaw puzzle.” “I was extremely overwhelmed in the moment, even though I felt like I did not meet my own standards,” she said. Entering the Olympics, Kuo said, the first order of business was to get the gold, but she also wanted to achieve her personal best and her inability to do so is bothering her, to the point that she now wants to compete in Paris in 2024. “When I did not make [that third lift of 141kg], I thought to myself: ‘No, I have to have a perfect score,’” she said. As Kuo was accepting her medal in Tokyo, her family members were
GOLF Pan dodges ‘no family’ rule Taiwan’s C.T. Pan has found an ingenious way around the “no-family” rule at the spectator-free Tokyo Olympic Games — he employs his wife as his caddie. Pan, who has had one win on the US PGA Tour in 2019, yesterday said his wife Michelle Lin could be key to a podium finish when the men’s event starts at Kasumigaseki Country Club today. “Since this is the biggest event in my life, and for the whole world, I needed to bring out my best. She’s my best caddie,” said the 29-year-old, who tied 30th in Rio de Janeiro five years ago. “She wanted to be with me. Most importantly, we’ve got a great record together,” Pan said. “She knows me very well, she’s caddied before and knows my bad habits. She can say the right thing at the right time. She’ll help more on the mental side, which I think will make me happy.” The pair are staying with the Taiwan team in the Athletes’ Village and were part of the celebrations on Tuesday when Kuo Hsing-chun won Taiwan’s first gold in women’s 59kg weightlifting. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience to stay with the best athletes in the world,” Michelle Lin said. “The Olympics is very special, and to be able to see my husband competing at this level, it makes me very proud of him.” SWIMMING Milak rattled by torn trunks Hungarian gold medalist Kristof Milak was left furious, flustered and convinced his chance of beating his own world record had vanished yesterday, when his swimsuit ripped moments before his Olympic 200m butterfly final. Milak was knocked off his stride by the torn trunks, with the satisfaction of winning his first gold medal and taking Michael Phelps’ 13-year-old Olympic record playing second fiddle to his rage about a spurned world
For Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin, there were no chances left: Either beat the world’s top-ranked men’s doubles badminton team from Indonesia for the first time or see their Olympic hopes dashed in the preliminary round. The world No. 3 Taiwanese duo answered the challenge, edging past Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo in their final Group A match 21-18, 15-21, 21-17 to qualify for the final eight knockout round. “We finally made it,” Lee wrote on Facebook after beating the Indonesian duo. However, he said that the competition still had a long way to go. “We’re happy not only because we won, but because we were able to score a breakthrough,” Wang wrote on Facebook. In a match that was tight throughout, the Taiwanese duo tried to apply pressure, attacking whenever possible, taking chances at the net to pick off shots early and keeping their opponents off balance. While that worked in the first game, unforced errors, mostly defensive shots that went beyond the baseline, began to haunt them in the next frame, helping the Indonesians even up the match. In the decider, Lee and Yang held a narrow lead for much of the game, but it took repeated smashes, an opportune net cord and a few errors by their opponents to take them to victory. “They played very well because they really need to win this match to pass the group stage,” Gideon said. “Their style is fast and they didn’t make mistakes.” To advance to the final eight, Lee and Yang had to finish in the top two of their group, and their chances seemed bleak after they were upset in their opening group match by the world No. 10 duo from India, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty. They then defeated Ben Lane and Sean Vendy from the UK before securing
The morning after capturing a bronze medal in the mixed doubles, Taiwanese table tennis stars Lin Yun-ju and Cheng I-ching met different fates in their opening-round singles matches at the Olympics Games in Tokyo. Lin, seeded fifth in the men’s singles, was in control throughout his opening-round match and defeated Anton Kaellberg of Sweden 11-5, 9-11, 11-7, 11-7, 11-9 in 42 minutes, never trailing by more than two points. He won despite getting only about five hours of sleep after his mixed doubles final on Monday night. The 19-year-old got to bed at about 1am and woke up at 6am to prepare for his 9am match. “Yesterday’s win didn’t change anything. Today was a new start,” he said. He then took 58 minutes to beat Gustavo Tsuboi of Brazil 11-5, 11-7, 11-2, 9-11, 9-11, 13-11 in the round of 16 in the afternoon. In his first game against Tsuboi, Lin took a small early lead and gradually widened it in the second half. In the second game, Lin opened up an early lead of four points, and although Tsuboi managed to even the score 6-6, Lin went on to score three consecutive points to win 11-7. In the third game, Lin easily defeated Tsuboi 11-2 in just six minutes, which took the Taiwanese player one win away from victory. Lin lost the next two games 9-11, and Tsuboi jumped to a four-point lead at the beginning of the sixth game, but Lin saved three match points at the end to gain a hard-won 13-11 victory. While Lin overcame his lack of sleep, Cheng, seeded fourth in the women’s singles, never seemed to shake off the emotions of the previous night against an opponent who was in top form in their round-of-32 match. Cheng
Triathlete Flora Duffy yesterday reveled in a “cool moment” after delivering the first Olympic gold medal in history for the tiny island of Bermuda in Tokyo. The 33-year-old crossed the line in the women’s race in 1 hour, 55 minutes, 36 seconds, more than a minute ahead of Britain’s Georgia Taylor-Brown, with US athlete Katie Zaferes taking bronze. Duffy’s success makes Bermuda the smallest nation or territory in terms of population — about 70,000 — to ever win a gold medal at a Summer Games. “I have achieved my dream of winning a gold medal, but also winning Bermuda’s first gold medal,” she said. “It’s bigger than me and that’s a really cool moment. That was the longest kilometer of my life [the final one of the run],” she said. “I think I can get used to being called Olympic champion for the rest of my life,” Bermuda’s only previous Olympic medalist was boxer Clarence Hill, who won a bronze in 1976. For Duffy it was a welcome reward after persistent injuries and being diagnosed with anemia in 2013. She quit the sport after failing to finish the event at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and started working in a shop before studying for a degree and returning to the sport. In a race delayed by 15 minutes because of slippery conditions following heavy overnight rain in the Japanese capital, Duffy took control in the final running section. She had opened up a lead of almost 1 minute after the first of four laps and was never under threat from then on. The broad grin she sported entering the finishing straight gave way to tears at the realization of what she had achieved as she crossed the line. “I tried to just keep my composure and not allow my mind to drift to the fact that this was really happening
Japanese tennis star Naomi Osaka’s dreams of a home Olympic gold were yesterday crushed by a 6-1, 6-4 defeat to the Czech Republic’s Marketa Vondrousova as her return to action came to an abrupt end. Osaka, who lit the Olympic cauldron and was one of the faces of the Tokyo Games, struggled in an error-strewn display that blew the draw wide open after the earlier exits of world No. 1 Ashleigh Barty and third seed Aryna Sabalenka. “How disappointed am I? I mean, I’m disappointed in every loss, but I feel like this one sucks more than the others,” the four-time Grand Slam-winner said. Asked what went wrong, she said: “Everything — if you watch the match then you would probably see. I feel like there’s a lot of things that I counted on that I couldn’t rely on today.” The third-round defeat follows a turbulent few months for Osaka, who abandoned her French Open campaign in May after refusing to attend news conferences, citing the need to preserve her mental health. Osaka also skipped Wimbledon, saying she had been battling depression and anxiety, before returning in Tokyo for her first Olympics and her starring role at the opening ceremony. “I definitely feel like there was a lot of pressure for this. I think it’s maybe because I haven’t played in the Olympics before and for the first year [it] was a bit much,” Osaka said. After looking assured in the first two rounds after her eight-week hiatus, Osaka made a dreadful start under the center court roof at a rain-hit Ariake Tennis Park and never recovered. “I’ve taken long breaks before and I’ve managed to do well. I’m not saying that I did bad right now, but I do know that my expectations were a lot higher,” she said. “I feel like my attitude wasn’t that great
Taiwanese boxer Chen Nien-chin yesterday advanced to the Olympic quarter-finals after defeating Italy’s Angela Carini in the women’s welterweight category in Tokyo. The fourth-seeded boxer, who at 24 is competing in her second Olympics, beat Carini with a 3-2 decision in the 69kg match at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo. Chen jumped to an early lead, taking the first of the 3 minute rounds 4-1, before narrowly holding the second by a 3-2 margin and losing the third 2-3. Three of the five judges gave Chen the edge, scoring her 30-27, 29-28 and 29-28, while the other two gave the nod to Carini, with scores of 29-28 and 29-28. By advancing into the quarter-finals, Chen has surpassed her 2016 performance in Rio de Janeiro, where she was eliminated in the round of 16 while competing in the 75kg middleweight category. Chen is set to face 23-year-old Lovlina Borgohain of India — who also advanced with a 3-2 victory against a much older German opponent yesterday — on Friday morning. Chen and Borgohain previously met in a semi-final bout at the 2018 AIBA World Boxing Championships, which the former won 4-0 on her way to being crowned world champion. In the women’s lightweight round of 32, Taiwan’s Wu Shih-yi beat Sweden’s Agnes Alexiusson 4-1. In swimming, Taiwan’s Eddie Wang placed 13th among 16 athletes in his men’s 200m butterfly semi-final, losing his chance to compete for a medal. Only the top eight swimmers are to compete for a spot on the podium today. Wang completed the race in 1 minute, 55.52 seconds, trailing winner Kristof Milak of Hungary by 3.5 seconds. Malik finished in 1 minute, 52.22 seconds, followed by Leonardo de Deus of Brazil in 1 minute, 54.97 seconds. In the 200m butterfly heats on Monday, Wang had placed second overall with a time
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