Taipei, May 30 (CNA) Four Taiwanese taekwondo athletes, including an ailing Olympic medalist competing in an unfamiliar weight class, captured medals at the recently concluded Taekwondo Austrian Open 2022.
Two of them won gold medals -- Hsu Hao-yu (徐晧祐) in the men's under-63 kg division and Ma Yu-hsin (馬妤昕) in the women's under-49 kg class, said Liu Tsung-ta (劉聰達), the coach of the team that competed in Innsbruck at the Olympiaworld sports facility.
The other two medalists took bronze -- Lin Wei-chun (林唯均) in the women's under-53 kg and Olympian Lo Chia-ling (羅嘉翎) in the women's under-62 kg.
That Lo even competed was already a victory of sorts, the coach told CNA on Monday.
Liu said it was Lo's first public event since bagging a bronze medal for Taiwan in the women's under-57 kg event at the Tokyo Summer Olympics in late July 2021.
She was supposed to have competed in the Swedish Taekwondo Open G2 in late April but injured herself before leaving Taiwan.
After taking a month to recover, she once again got injured while training in Korea, leaving her unable to get her weight down to the level needed for her preferred under-57 kg weight class.
As the injury happened just two days before Lo was to leave for Austria, Liu said he initially thought about benching the Olympian.
Liu said they later came up with a new game plan and had Lo compete in the women's under-62 kg class instead, but the Olympian aggravated an old injury during a pre-match warmup in Innsbruck, and she had to take a painkiller before her first bout.
In the end, Lo underperformed at the event, Liu said, largely because she was competing in a less familiar weight class and lacked practice because of her run of injuries, but she still parlayed her experience and strategy into a bronze medal.
The Taiwanese team in Austria will now split up, with Lo and another highly ranked athlete, Lee Meng-En (李孟恩), heading to Italy for the 2022 World Taekwondo Grand Prix featuring the world's top taekwondo competitors.
They will then participate in competitions in Luxemburg in mid-June and then in Paris at the end of August.
The others will be off to Korea, according to Liu
