OLYMPICS/July 29 recap: Taiwan paddlers Cheng, Kao advance in Olympics

Paris, July 29 (CNA) Taiwanese table tennis players Cheng I-ching (鄭怡靜) and Kao Cheng-jui (高承睿) advanced to the round of 16 at the Paris 2024 Olympics on Monday, while fencer Chen Yi-tung (陳弈通) and judoka Lien Chen-ling (連珍羚) were eliminated early in their events.

Cheng, who is competing in the women's singles, defeated Romanian Elizabeta Samara 4-2 in a match that lasted 59 minutes, while Kao only needed 38 minutes to beat Eduard Ionescu of Romania 4-1 in the men's singles.

With their wins, the two players both advanced to the round of 16, but only one of them will be the favorite in their match.

Cheng, seeded 7th in her event, will next face the winner of the match between 28th seed Natalia Bajor and Yu Fu of Portugal for a spot in the quarterfinals, where No. 1 seed Sun Yingsha of China could loom.

Kao, seeded 20th in Paris, will likely face top seed Wang Chuqin of China in his round of 16 match. Wang is scheduled to play 19th seed Truls Moregard of Sweden on Wednesday in the round of 32.

In fencing, the 21-year-old Chen, ranked 59th in the world, was ousted from the competition after losing to No. 5 seed Enzo Lefort of France 15-12. It was the most points he had scored in his three matches against the 32-year-old veteran.

Despite the loss, Chen tied Taiwan's best showing in the sport at the Olympics, set by Hsu Jo-ting (徐若庭) in the women's épée individual event at London 2012, the last time a Taiwanese fencer competed in the discipline.

Meanwhile, 36-year-old judoka Lien was knocked out of the women's judo 57-kilogram event after losing in the round of 16 to Serbian phenom Marica Perišić.

As Taiwan's first woman to win a judo gold at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games, Lien finished fifth in her Olympic debut in Rio 2016, but was disqualified in the round of 16 in Tokyo after receiving three shidos, or warnings for minor violations.

She had hoped to advance deep into the tournament in Paris, but fell behind about halfway through the 4-minute bout on a takedown (waza-ari), and she was unable to come up with a similar move against the higher-ranked Serb despite picking up the pace.

It was also a disappointing day for Taiwan's male archers, who could not replicate their silver medal performance of three years ago in Tokyo.

They lost 5-1 to China in the quarterfinals of the men's team event, unable to find the consistency to keep their arrows in the 9-point or 10-point areas of the target.

In boxing, Wu Shih-yi (吳詩儀), who is competing in the women's 60 kg (lightweight) event, automatically advanced into the quarterfinals after her Nigerian opponent Cynthia Ogunsemilore was disqualified due to a doping allegation.

Another Taiwanese boxer, Lai Chu-en (賴主恩), competing in the men's light welterweight division (63.5 kgs), was eliminated after losing 3-2 to Bazarbay Uulu Mukhammedsabyr of Kazakhstan in the round of 16.

In shooting, Yang Kum-pi (楊昆弼) scored a total of 72 points in three rounds to rank 11th after the first three rounds of the men's trap event qualification.

He will have to finish in the top six after the final three rounds are completed Tuesday to qualify for the finals.