Taiwan continued its strong run at the Tokyo Olympics with silver in the men’s archery team and bronze in the mixed doubles table tennis July 26, bringing the country’s medal tally to four and rank by total to equal 11th with Brazil.
Deng Yu-cheng, Tang Chih-chun and Wei Chun-heng won silver in the archery after falling to South Korea in the final. The trio defeated opponents from Australia, China and the Netherlands in that order before repeating Taiwan’s inaugural second spot finish in the sport at Athens 2004.
Two-time Olympian Wei said the team remained fully focused despite nervousness over appearing in finals. It was a case of enjoying the experience of competing at the world’s biggest sporting event while channeling the success of lead-up matches, Deng and Tang said.
In the table tennis, Cheng I-ching and Lin Yung-ju won bronze after defeating rivals from France in four straight sets. The medal is Taiwan’s first in the sport since Sydney 2000.
Cheng said in a post on her Facebook account that the bronze also belongs to everyone who has supported the duo over the years. She thanked Lin for refusing to give up, adding that they will both give their all in the individual competitions at the games.
According to the Sports Administration under the Ministry of Education, 68 Taiwan athletes are contesting 18 sports at the games. These include artistic gymnastics, badminton, boxing, golf, swimming, table tennis and weightlifting. (SFC-E)
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