Taiwan's Cho wins gold at Asian Open Water Swimming Championships

Taipei, Nov. 8 (CNA) Taiwanese swimmer Cho Cheng-chi (卓承齊) won gold on Friday in the men's 10-kilometer race at the Asian Open Water Swimming Championships held in Hong Kong.

In a tight race, Cho finished in a time of 2 hours, 3 minutes, and 40.2 seconds, just 0.1 seconds faster than the silver medalist, Thailand's Thammananthachote Ratthawit.

Cho was crowned Asian champion for the first time in the event, having clinched silver on three previous occasions.

In an interview with CNA, Cho revealed that his mental condition had been unsatisfactory since the 2023 Asian Games wrapped up in October. After missing the opportunity to compete in the Paris Olympics and considering his age, he thought about retiring from the sport.

Fortunately, Cho said, his coach Liu Yao-chang (劉曜彰) communicated with him, and they agreed that he should take a long break instead of retiring.

Returning to training in June, Cho signed up for the Kinmen Long-Distance Open Water Swimming in July.

But with his mental state remaining unimproved, Cho said he again contemplated stepping back from swimming to focus on his master's degree.

However, Liu persisted in communicating with Cho, urging him "to not quit so early," leading Cho to decide to compete in the Asian Championships and return to training again in September.

Cho said that he only received a little more than one month of intense training, and Liu did not dare to drill him too hard, so his state was only at about 70-80 percent of his peak.

Despite that, Cho said he felt his training was solid, adding he was happy to finally win a gold.

"A gold medal depends a lot on the state and luck during the race," he said.

"Now that I'm in the final stage of my [professional swimming] career, this [medal] means a lot to me."

Cho said he was most grateful to his coach.

"It's the coach who kept discussing with me. You could say that this medal was obtained with his incessant training," he said. "I only resumed training for a month, but he still thought I had a chance, and that helped me to achieve this milestone in life."

Meanwhile, Taiwan's Teng Yu-wen (鄧羽彣) won a bronze for the 10 km women's category at a time of 2 hours, 17 minutes and 23.8 seconds.