The Chinese Taipei team have walked away with one gold and three bronze medals following a successful campaign at the 2023 Asian Karate Championships held in the Malaysian city of Melaka.
The team's fourth medal was won on Sunday by three Taiwanese female karatekas, Chen Tzu-yun (陳姿云), Chao Jou (趙柔) and Yu Yan-yi (余彥儀), who picked up bronze at the women's team Kumite event.
At the event, Taiwan first defeated the Kazakhstan delegation, before beating the team from India.
Chen, Chao and Yu then lost to the karatekas from Iran, which led to them taking on Japan in a battle for the bronze medal.
Japan sent out its two strongest fighters first, but after Chao unexpectedly beat her opponent 5-4, Taiwan's morale was boosted, Chinese Taipei's coach Teng Shih-yu (鄧世瑀) said, adding that Chao's performance was key in security the team's victory.
Teng, who led the Taiwanese delegation, said Taiwan's female karatekas are formidable internationally.
However, there was always a lot of uncertainty in team Kumite matches, which partly explained the slightly disappointing result, he added.
Team Kumite events can be tricky compared to individual matches because coaches do not know the order that the other team's karatekas will compete when arranging the order of their fighters.
The 2023 Asian Karate Championships was held from July 21-23 at the Malacca International Trade Centre in Melaka, Malaysia.
The competition hosted over 500 athletes from 32 countries competing in Kumite and Kata events.
On top of the medal win Sunday, Yu also won a bronze in the women's 68 kilograms Kumite event, with Wu Chun-wei (吳峻維) picking up another bronze medal in the men's 84kg Kumite event.
The team's sole gold medal was won by Ku Tsui-ping (辜翠萍) in the women's 55kg Kumite event.
