Taipei, July 31 (CNA) Three Taiwanese athletes reached their respective taekwondo finals at the 31st edition of the World University Games in Chengdu on Monday, but they all lost their gold medal contests to finish with silver.
Tokyo Olympics medalist Lo Chia-ling (羅嘉翎) and Chiu Yi-jui (邱義睿) lost in the finals of the women's under-57 kilograms and men's under-68 kg, respectively, by a 2-0 margin to South Korean opponents, while Huan Ying-hsuan (黃映瑄) fell to Rita Bakisheva of Kazakhstan 2-1.
Lo, who lost to Kim Yu-jin 9-3 and 7-5 in the best-of-three round format, said advancing to the final had helped her regain some lost confidence, but she still regretted missing out on the gold medal and could not hold back tears, according to sports media TSNA.
"I lost to her [Kim Yu-jin] last time, and I still couldn't break through this time," Lo said, blaming herself for losing her rhythm and making too many mistakes.
"It hurts so much to think about not winning gold," Lo said, but she expected to learn from the experience and come back stronger at the Hangzhou Asian Games in late September, according to TSNA.
The three silvers gave Taiwan a total of five taekwondo medals in Chengdu, after Hu Tzu-hsuan's (胡子萱) silver in the women's individual poomsae and a bronze in mixed pairs poomsae won by Hsu Yu-tse (徐語澤) and Huang Pin-chieh (黃品潔).
Taiwanese athletes also clinched two other bronze medals Monday, in archery and rhythmic gymnastics.
Peng Chia-mao (彭家楙) secured bronze in the recurve women's in
dividual with a 6-2 victory over South Korean Lee Gahyun in the third-place contest.
She was edged out of a spot in the finals by Kazakhstan archer Diana Tursunbek when Tursunbek shot a 10 and Peng an 8 in a tiebreaker arrow to take a 6-5 victory.
Peng's coach Ou I (歐翼) praised Peng's resilience and consistency in the bronze-medal battle, when of the 12 arrows she shot, four were for perfect 10s and the other eight were 9s.
Ou said Peng's performance was bound to help her at the upcoming Asian Games.
The other bronze came in rhythmic gymnastics in the three ribbons and two balls group category, the second ever for Taiwanese athletes in the category at a University Games.
It was won by Chan Ting-chen (詹庭甄), Lo Yu-ching (羅郁晴), Tsai Jui-shan (蔡瑞珊), Lai Hsin-ya (賴新雅) and Peng Fan-xi (彭凡晞) with a total score of 24.750 to finish behind teams from Japan and China.
The team's coach Kuo Ning-ya (郭甯亞) told CNA she was proud of the gymnasts but felt sympathy for them because they all came into the Universiade with injuries.
Tsai had the worst injury of the group, having suffered from a serious fracture to her right hand on July 20, according to Kuo, and attempts were made to dissuade Tsai from competing to prevent the injury from getting worse, but she stuck it out.
Kuo said it was impossible to put into words how great it was to see the five girls she had trained for many years, some of them for more than a decade, win a medal in an international tournament.
As of Monday, Taiwanese athletes had garnered one gold, seven silvers and eight bronzes at the games.
