Taiwan bags 2 more Asian Games bronze medals in karate

Taipei, Sept. 22 (CNA) Taiwan won two more karate bronze medals at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Tuesday through its women's team kata squad and men's kumite competitor Chung Meng-yu (鍾孟宇).

The results at Toyohashi Gymnasium, a municipal venue inside General Sports Park in the city of Toyohashi in Aichi Prefecture, lifted Taiwan's overall tally to eight medals -- one gold, three silver and four bronze -- in this year's games.

The 34-year-old Chien Hui-hsuan (簡慧萱), who won bronze in the women's individual kata event Sunday, was joined by 22-year-old Tien Hsin-erh (田欣兒) and 23-year-old Hung Chih-hsuan (洪芷暄) for the team competition.

The Taiwanese trio defeated Macao by a 5-0 decision in the quarterfinals but lost 5-0 to Vietnam in the semifinals, sending them into a bronze-medal contest against Nepal.

They secured the medal with another unanimous 5-0 victory, earning Taiwan's seventh medal of the Games and its third in karate.

Kata is a judged demonstration of choreographed offensive and defensive movements, unlike kumite, in which athletes face each other in sparring bouts.

Later Tuesday, Chung added another bronze medal for Taiwan in the men's kumite under-84-kilogram division.

He lost 4-1 to Jordan's Mohammad Al-Jafari in the quarterfinals but remained in medal contention through repechage, which gives athletes defeated by finalists another route to a bronze-medal bout.

Chung faced India's Chetan Bhatt for the medal, and their bout finished 1-1 at the end of regulation, but Chung was named the winner on "senshu," meaning he scored a point using a valid scoring move before his opponent did.

Chung's result gave Taiwan's karate team its fourth bronze medal in three consecutive days of competition.

Chien opened the run with bronze in the women's individual kata on Sunday, while Shih Cheng-chung (石政中) claimed bronze in the men's kumite under-67-kilogram division on Monday.