Team Taiwan bagged nine golds, eight silvers and eight bronzes during the inaugural Taipei International Roller Skating Open Nov. 15-17 at Dajia Riverside Park.
Co-organized by the Sports Administration under the Ministry of Education, the event involved more than 1,100 athletes from 16 countries and territories contesting six categories in four age groups.
Homegrown talent Yang He-chen, who won five golds at the 2017 Taipei Universiade, claimed first in the women’s 10,000-meter elimination race on Day 1. Teammates Liu Yi-hsuan and Li Meng-chu finished second and third in that order.
The medal haul continued for Taiwan the same day. Ko Fu-shiuan edged out Chen Yan-cheng for gold in the men’s 10,000-meter elimination race, while Chen Ying-chu followed suit in the women’s 200-meter time trial race.
Liu and Chen Yan-chen continued their winning ways from the day before to bag top honors in 10,000-meter points elimination for women and men, respectively. Li and Kao Mao-chieh also claimed respective golds in the 1,000-meter sprint for women and men.
Day 3 of the open was similarly propitious for Taiwan. Peng Yue-cih and Kao finished first, respectively, in the 500+D sprint races for women and men.
The first six individual rankings for women were held down by Chen Ying-chu, Peng, Yang, Li, Liu Hsin-ru and Liu Yi-hsuan. Kao topped the list for men, followed by Park Geon-woo of South Korea, Chen Yan-chen, Ko, Huang Yu-lin of Taiwan and Jonathan Galar of Spain. (SFC-E)
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