OLYMPICS/July 31 Recap: Boxer Wu wins Taiwan's 1st medal, Tai out

Paris, July 31 (CNA) Taiwan will secure at least one medal at the Paris Olympics following boxer Wu Shih-yi's (吳詩儀) quarterfinal victory in the women's 60-kilogram (lightweight) division, while its male badminton players topped their groups and female ace Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎) bowed out of the Games.

Wu defeated María José Palacios of Ecuador, a 2023 Pan American Games bronze medalist, by majority decision, with four out of five judges scoring in her favor. The 26-year-old pugilist is guaranteed to win at least a bronze medal since there is no bronze medal match in the boxing event.

The win was significant for Team Taiwan (competing under the name "Chinese Taipei"). Wu's success comes after the elimination of three Taiwanese boxers, including Kan Chia-wei (甘佳葳) in the men's 71-kilogram (welterweight) category on the same day, as well as the exit of judoka Yang Yung-wei (楊勇緯) in the men's 60-kilogram event.

Wu made her Olympic debut in Tokyo three years ago, where she struggled with injuries and was eliminated in the round of 16.

This time, after her unanimous victory in the round of 32 over South Korea's Oh Yeon-ji, who won a bronze medal at the 2023 World Championship, Wu advanced to the quarterfinals as the fourth-seeded Cynthia Ogunsemilore of Nigeria failed a drug test.

Wu will now seek to make a comeback in the semifinal on Saturday against China's Yang Wenlu (楊文璐), who previously defeated Wu by unanimous decision en route to gold at the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou.

"This is not the end but another beginning," Wu said.

Badminton: Two in, one out

Taiwan's badminton team had good news in the men's singles and doubles with veteran Chou Tien-chen (周天成) and the Tokyo Olympic gold medalist duo Lee Yang (李洋) and Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) finishing first in their group events, advancing to the round of 16 and quarterfinals, respectively.

Chou, 34, won against Hong Kong's Lee Cheuk Yiu (李卓耀) in 44 minutes, securing a straight games victory of 21-18, 21-13.

After securing the match point with a smash, Chou pumped his right fist and shouted in celebration. "I just wanted to boost [Team Taiwan's] morale," he later explained.

Wang shared a similar sentiment after the Taiwanese duo outlasted China's tall-statured duo Liu Yuchen (劉雨辰) and Ou Xuanyi (歐烜屹) in a 66-minute match.

Wang lay on the ground and yelled with clenched fists after seeing the shuttlecock land outside of the sideline to score their last point, coming back from a 17-21 loss in the first game to win 21-17 and 24-22 in subsequent games.

Although Wang had a dip in form over the last two matches, Lee's clutch performance on Wednesday helped elevate his partner's game, according to ELTA TV anchor Lee Yu-ting (李祐廷).

Lee and Wang secured their quarterfinal berth when they tied the match with a Game 2 victory, but they relaxed early in Game 3.

"I kept telling Chi-lin that as we enter the quarterfinals, we can't relax too much; we should keep it going," Lee said after surviving the so-called "group of death" stage: Group D.

Only the top two teams in each group advance to the quarterfinals, but due to an error by the Badminton World Federation (BWF), the international governing body of the sport, Group D contained five teams, one more than the other groups.

In addition to the Chinese world No.9 duo, the group included the world No.2 pair from Denmark, No.8 from Japan, and No.45 from the United States.

"I thought we were done after the draw, but we just focused on each match," Wang said, admitting that the 4-0 result was beyond his expectations.

"This year feels particularly solid; at least we don't have to rely on others to advance as we did in Tokyo," he added.

On Wednesday, female ace Tai Tzu-ying failed to reach the round of 16 after losing to Thailand's Ratchanok Intanon, 21-19, 21-15, partly due to her knee injuries.

Tai, a former world No.1 who participated in four Olympic Games, was knocked out in the round of 16 in her first two Games but won a silver at Tokyo in 2021.

Table Tennis: One remain in each of the men's and women's singles

Currently, Taiwan has one player remaining in both the men's and women's singles, as Kao Cheng-jui (高承睿) lost in the round of 16 on Wednesday.

The 19-year-old Olympic newcomer lost to Truls Moregard of Sweden 4-1, with three games going to deuce. Moregard earned a spot in the round of 16 by upsetting China's world No.1 Wang Chuqin (王楚欽) earlier that day.

Despite Kao's elimination, "Silent Assassin" Lin Yun-ju (林昀儒) and veteran Cheng I-ching (鄭怡靜) both advanced to the quarterfinals with 4-0 sweeps against Darko Jorgic of Slovenia and Natalia Bajor of Poland, respectively.

Lin, who finished fourth in the previous Olympics, will next face France's Felix Lebrun on Thursday, while Cheng, who has tied her best Olympic record, will take on China's world No.1 Sun Yingsha on the same day.

Shooting: Two more out

Meanwhile, Liu Wan-yu (劉宛渝) and Lin Yi-chun (林怡君) failed to qualify for the women's trap final, finishing 25th and 26th among the 30 competitors with total scores of 112 and 110, respectively.

Only the top six shooters advanced to the final, where Guatemala's Adriana Ruano Olivia obtained the top medal.

Although she is already 43, Lin, a five-time Olympian, said she will continue to pursue her goal of winning a medal at the Games.

"I will not give up on my goal of winning an Olympic medal. Now that I've failed, I will just practice for another four years. I'm not going to give up my favorite sport before achieving my goal," she said.

As of Wednesday, five of the team's eight shooters have exited the Games.

The remaining three are Lee Meng-yuan (李孟遠) in the men's skeet and Tien Chia-chen (田家榛) and Wu Chia-ying (吳佳穎) in the women's 25m pistol, with their events starting on Friday.

(By Li Chien-chung, Hsieh Ching-wen, and Chao Yen-hsiang)

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