Taiwanese boxers bag 2 golds, 2 silvers in Spain tourney

Taipei, Feb. 4 (CNA) Taiwanese boxers won two gold medals and two silvers Saturday at the Boxam International Tournament, held in La Nucia, Spain from Jan. 30 to Feb. 3.

The first gold medal was won by Chen Nien-chin (陳念琴), who scored a 5-0 win against Kazakhstan's Madina Nurshayeva in the women's 70-kilogram division.

The 26-year-old also won the tournament's "Best Boxer" title.

Chen's coach Ko Wen-ming (柯文明) told CNA that he purposefully had Chen compete in the 70-kg division instead of her usual 66-kg division to build her stress resistance.

Ko said Chen has improved greatly since the Asian Games and had shown "increased stability, better tactics and a more steady mindset" in Saturday's final.

Also on Saturday, Kan Chia-wei (甘家葳) took gold in the men's 75-kg division, defeating Poland's Michal Jarlinski by three rounds to two.

Meanwhile, Wu Shih-yi (吳詩儀) won silver in the women's 60-kg division and Huang Hsaio-wen (黃筱雯) took silver in the women's 57-kg division.

Wu and Kan have already secured a spot at the Paris Olympics but Chen and Huang still need to compete in the qualifiers in Italy from Feb. 29-March 12.

While Chen won a bronze in the Asian Games in 2023, she did not secure Olympic qualification.

Ko said that he thought Chen had a good chance of securing qualification if she stayed healthy.

Huang's coach Liu Tsung-tai (劉宗泰) told CNA that Huang's aim at this tournament is to examine her training results by competing against athletes of higher divisions and get to know her potential competitors in the 54-kg division, with her eye mainly on the Olympics qualifications.