OLYMPICS/Taiwanese Olympians move one step closer to medal success

Paris, July 27 (CNA) Several Taiwanese athletes got closer to winning a medal in their respective disciplines following a strong showing at the 2024 Paris Olympics on Saturday.

Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) and Lee Yang (李洋), the badminton duo who took gold in Tokyo, won their first match against Japan's Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi 21-16, 21-10 in the men's doubles event.

They will face Denmark's Anders Skaarup Rasmussen and Kim Astrup in the next group game on Monday.

Also in badminton, Ye Hong-wei (葉宏蔚) and Lee Chia-hsin (李佳馨) lost their first mixed doubles match to Hong Kong's Tang Chun Man (鄧俊文) and Tse Ying Suet (謝影雪) 21-13, 21-13.

They will have to win against Japan's Yuta Watanabe and Arisa Higashino on Sunday to have a chance of advancing to the next round.

Meanwhile, despite having a home advantage, French paddlers Alexis Lebrun and Yuan Jianan (袁嘉楠) were toppled by Taiwan's Lin Yun-ju (林昀儒) and Chen Szu-yu (陳思羽) at the mixed-doubles table tennis event.

In the best-of-seven sport, Team Taiwan, which competes under the name "Chinese Taipei," took the first game 11-9, but lost the second 9-11.

The duo went on to win the third and fourth games 11-5, 12-10, but the tide turned in the fifth, with the French pair winning 11-2.

The Taiwanese duo ultimately triumphed after being victorious the sixth game 11-7 to close out the match 4-2 and secure their place in the quarterfinals.

In the men's gymnastics qualifying round for the Olympics, Taiwan's "King of Cat," the nation's horizontal bar standout Tang Chia-hung (唐嘉鴻), advanced to the "all-around finals" after achieving the second-highest score of 14.933.

He was awarded 6.3 for degree of difficulty and 8.633 for execution.

Also on Saturday, boxer Huang Hsiao-wen (黃筱雯), who won bronze in the last edition of the Olympics in Tokyo, advanced to the round of 16 in the women's 54 kg (bantamweight) division after defeating Montenegro's Bojana Gojkovic by unanimous decision.