ASIAN GAMES/Taiwan bags 5 more bronze medals at Asiad

Taipei, Sept. 25 (CNA) Taiwanese athletes won five more bronze medals at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Friday, with veteran weightlifter Kuo Hsing-chun (郭婞淳) reaching the podium for the second consecutive Games.

Two of the medals came in women's weightlifting, while Taiwan also took one bronze in canoe sprint and one each in men's and women's kabaddi.

Kuo, 32, lifted a combined 237 kilograms in the women's 61 kg division, snatching 107 kg and lifting 130 kg in the clean and jerk. She won bronze at the previous Asian Games in Hangzhou in 2023, where she competed in the women's 59 kg division.

The Tokyo Olympic gold medalist made all three of her snatch attempts on Friday, lifting 102 kg, 104 kg and 107 kg to stand third after the first half of the competition.

Kuo then succeeded at 130 kg on her first clean-and-jerk attempt, but missed twice at 138 kg. Her bronze brought her career Asian Games tally to one gold and two bronzes.

Fellow weightlifter Chen Guan-ling (陳冠伶) took bronze in the women's 57 kg division with a total of 217 kg. Chen snatched 95 kg before lifting 122 kg on her final clean-and-jerk attempt, securing Taiwan's first weightlifting medal in this year's Games.

In the men's canoe single 500-meter event, Lai Kuan-chieh (賴冠傑) finished third in 1:49.042, earning Taiwan's first canoe sprint medal in Nagoya.

Lai also won a medal at the Hangzhou Games, taking gold in the men's canoe single 1,000 meters.

Taiwan's women's kabaddi team took bronze after losing 23-19 to Iran in the semifinals. The team had won all three of its group matches to reach the final four, but could not repeat its silver-medal finish from Hangzhou.

The men's kabaddi team also lost to Iran in the semifinals, falling 59-21 to take bronze for the second consecutive Games.

As of press time, Taiwan had won two golds, five silvers and 16 bronzes.