Kaohsiung, Aug. 10 (CNA) Taiwan has high hopes of breaking its own record haul of gold medals at the world university games this year, director-general of the Ministry of Education's Sports Administration Lin De-fu said Thursday.
"As host of the biennial international event, we hope to break our record of seven gold medals with the home advantage," Lin said.
Lin, who received the Chinese Taipei flag for the Universiade from President Tsai Ing-wen during a ceremony in Kaohsiung, said the team is well prepared and hopes to set new records at the games.
The university games is the largest multi-sport event in the world after the Olympic Games and 371 local athletes will compete at the 2017 Taipei Summer Universiade, which is set to run from Aug. 19-30.
Given the size of the Taiwanese team, which is the largest ever, Taiwan could win as many as 11 gold medals, Lin said after the ceremony.
The local team will compete in a variety of disciplines, including basketball, table tennis, taekwondo, swimming, archery and badminton.
According to the Sports Administration, the 2017 Universiade will be the largest sporting event ever to be held in Taiwan, with 11,397 representatives from 131 countries, including 7,639 athletes.
