Taiwan bags 2 golds, 1 bronze at gymnastics meet in Slovenia

Taipei, May 19 (CNA) Taiwanese gymnasts won three medals in men's events at the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG) World Challenge Cup in Slovenia over the weekend.

On Saturday, Chiou Min-han (邱敏翰) won a gold medal in the men's floor exercise in his first World Challenge Cup final, at the series' second stop in Koper, Slovenia.

The 22-year-old scored 13.833 for his routine with a 5.000 degree of difficulty, overtaking 20-year-old home favorite Anze Hribar, who scored 13.800 after a deduction of 0.1 points.

"He executed the routine on the floor very well," Chiou's coach Huang Po-jui (黃柏瑞) told CNA Saturday. "In his current form, he has a very good chance to win medals in artistic gymnastics for Taiwan."

Chiou recently secured a spot to represent Taiwan at the 2025 FISU World University Games in Germany in July, after winning two silver medals -- in the all-around and vault -- and two bronzes at the National Intercollegiate Athletic Games in early May.

In Koper, Chiou also competed in the men's horizontal bar and vault, making the finals of the vault in which he finished seventh with an average score of 13.266.

Tseng Wei-sheng (曾為聖), a 26-year-old Taiwanese, won gold in the vault on Sunday with a score of 13.883 after performing jumps that both had degrees of difficulty of 5.2.

Tseng came to the tournament in Slovenia after his gold-medal winning choice of "rare vaults wowed spectators at the World Challenge Cup opener in Varna (BUL) last weekend," the FIG said in a statement on May 13.

Tseng has trained for six months to achieve his current form, Tseng's coach Lin Yu-hsin (林育信) told CNA Sunday.

Lin said he plans to help the 2023 Summer World University Games silver medalist in the men's vault work on refining details and improve his execution to ensure consistency and clean landings.

Meanwhile, Wang Yi-hsiang (王奕翔) won a bronze Saturday in the men's rings with a score of 13.433 for a routine that had a 5.3 degree of difficulty. Turkish gymnasts Ibrahim Colak and Yunus Gundogdu took home the gold and silver, respectively.

Wang, 27, won his first gold medal in the men's rings at the National Intercollegiate Athletic Games on May 1. The gymnast turned his focus away from the floor exercise and vault four years ago after two knee surgeries.