Taiwan takes 3 golds, 1 silver in tug-of-war championships

Taipei, Sept. 8 (CNA) Taiwan's team clinched a total of three gold and one silver medals at the Tug of War Outdoor World Championship held in Mannheim, Germany on Saturday, Germany time.

The first two golds were won in the women's 540 kilogram and the U19 mixed 520kg categories in the morning.

It was the second consecutive gold Taiwan has won in the women's 540kg category in the post-pandemic period.

In the afternoon, Taiwan took another gold in the U23 women's 500kg category and a silver in the U23 men's 600kg category.

Chinese Taipei Tug of War Association Secretary-General Cho Yao-peng (卓耀鵬) told CNA that it was encouraging for Taiwan's team to obtain these results on the first day of the championship games.

However, Cho said it was more important that Taiwan advance to the top four in the women's 500kg and men's 640kg categories, as they are qualifiers for the World Games (TWG) to be held in Chengdu, China next year.

The championship games for these categories will be held on Sunday, according to the schedule.

In another qualifier for TWG, the mixed 580kg category, Taiwan did not advance to the top four after a struggle on Saturday afternoon.

On the other hand, Cho said he was optimistic that Taiwan will win another gold in the women's 500kg.

The Taiwan team has sent out 93 athletes for 12 categories in this year's tug-of-war games.

The 2024 Tug of War Outdoor World Championship is being held from Sept. 5-8, with the first two days scheduled as open tournaments for individual schools and the last two days being the championships, according to the official website.

Taiwan's teams have taken six medals in the open tournaments.