OLYMPICS/Two Taiwanese female golfers qualify for Paris Olympics

Taipei, June 25 (CNA) Two Taiwanese golfers have secured slots in the women's golf event at the Olympic Games in Paris following the latest world rankings issued Tuesday.

Chien Pei-yun (錢珮芸), who will be making her first Olympic appearance, and Hsu Wei-ling (徐薇淩), who will be playing in an Olympics for a second time, were ranked No. 88 and No. 161, respectively, on June 24, the cutoff date for qualifying.

According to the qualifying rules, the top 15 players in the world rankings are automatically granted a spot in Paris, with no more than four from the same country allowed.

For players ranked outside the top 15, they are selected in order of their ranking, but no more than two players per country can be selected (including those already chosen in the top 15).

The process continues until a total of 59 players have been chosen.

It might seem strange that Hsu could earn a spot despite being ranking 161st, but a total of 46 South Koreans, 33 Japanese and 22 Americans were ranked above her, and only eight players from those three countries qualified, leaving plenty of openings for lower ranked athletes.

The qualification period for the women's event ended Tuesday.

Hsu, who finished 15th in Tokyo in the previous Olympic Games, said the greens on French golf courses are known to be challenging, but "of course I want to do better than I did in Tokyo, [because] all players want to stand on the podium when we compete."

Meanwhile, Pan Cheng-tsung (潘政琮) and Yu Chun-an (俞俊安) will represent Taiwan in the men's golf event. Pan's bronze in Tokyo was Taiwan's first Olympic medal in the sport.

Yu was ranked 108th in the world on the men's cutoff date of June 17 while Pan was ranked 140th.