Taiwan continues medal haul at Asian Taekwondo Championships

Taipei, May 23 (CNA) Taiwan continued its medal haul on Saturday at the Asian Taekwondo Championships, with Chen Liang-hsi (陳亮希) winning a bronze medal in the men's 87-kilogram middleweight category.

At the championships in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Chen made it to the semifinals after defeating Thailand's Jack Woody Mercer 2-0 in the last eight.

With a bronze medal secured, Chen then faced Park Woo-hyeok of South Korea.

Park, the 2022 World Taekwondo Championships men's 80 kg welterweight champion, proved too tough for Chen, and the Taiwanese athlete lost to his Korean opponent 0-2.

On Chen's performance, his coach Su Tai-yuan (蘇泰源) said he advanced according to expectations.

Su said that with Chen's capabilities, the team had initially designed a strategy to specifically combat Park.

However, Park lived up to his reputation as a seasoned fighter, Su said, as he was able to keep up a stable performance even while falling behind.

Su went on to add that while Chen lost the match, the fight was a good learning experience for the Taiwanese athlete.

The bronze was Chen's first senior championships medal in his career.

Chen's bronze followed Wang Chieh-ling's (王婕菱) women's 46 kg gold and Liu You-yun's (劉侑芸) silver in the women's 49-kilogram flyweight division.