Taiwan wins skeet, gymnastics bronzes at Asian Games

Taipei, Sept. 23 (CNA) Taiwanese sharpshooter Lee Meng-yuan (李孟遠) won bronze in the men's skeet event at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Wednesday, becoming the first Taiwanese athlete to medal in the event at the Asian Games.

The 32-year-old clinched the bronze with 29 hits, finishing behind Qatar's Rashid Saleh Al-Athba, who won gold with an Asian record of 34 hits, and China's Lyu Jianlin (吕健林), who took silver with 33.

Meanwhile, gymnasts Tang Chia-hung (唐嘉鴻), Hung Yuan-hsi (洪源禧), Chuang Chia-lung (莊佳龍), Lee Chih-kai (李智凱) and Shiao Yu-jan (蕭佑然) won bronze in the men's artistic gymnastics team event, finishing behind China and Japan, which took gold and silver, respectively.

Lee Meng-yuan also made history at the Paris Olympics, where he won bronze in men's skeet to become the first Taiwanese athlete to win an Olympic medal in shooting.

He previously won bronze in the mixed team event at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Lee told Taiwanese reporters that he wanted to dedicate his hard-earned medal to his late father, Hsieh Chih-pei (謝志培), who also coached him until his death in 2025.

"I believed my father was watching me during the match," he said.

Taiwan won bronze in the men's artistic gymnastics team event for the second consecutive Asian Games.

Team coach Lin Yu-hsin (林育信) said the gymnasts were under considerable pressure to win another medal at this year's Asian Games.

He credited the team's two veterans, Lee and Tang, with helping their younger teammates secure the bronze medal.

Team Taiwan, competing under the name Chinese Taipei, had won 12 medals at the Asian Games as of Wednesday afternoon, including one gold medal in soft tennis mixed doubles, three silvers and eight bronzes.