ASIAN GAMES/High jumper Fu Chao-hsuan finds his stride with Asian Games gold

Nagoya, Sept. 28 (CNA) "This sport lets me fly through the air, and it allows the whole crowd to focus on just me when I'm competing. That's why I like the high jump."

That is what drew 23-year-old Fu Chao-hsuan (傅兆玄) to the high jump competition. On Sunday, the crowd watched him clear 2.25 meters on his first attempt at the Asian Games at the Nagoya City Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium in Japan.

The jump matched his season best and put him ahead of India's Sarvesh Anil Kushare, who cleared the same height on his second attempt. Neither athlete made it over 2.28 meters, which gave Fu the gold medal.

With that achievement, Fu became the first Taiwanese male competitor in 60 years to win a gold medal in track and field athletics at the Asian Games.

Fu, whose personal best in the high jump stands at 2.27 meters, had shown promise as a teenager, but injuries and stalled results hindered his path to Sunday's gold.

Standing at 1.96 meters, he is the tallest of three sons born to a 1.70-meter-tall former volleyball player and a 1.81-meter-tall father who says he once practiced the high jump.

Fu took up combined athletics events in elementary school and began concentrating on the high jump in high school, training under coach Chen Hung-chieh (陳鴻傑), a former national high jumper.

"Chao-hsuan had explosive power and trained hard," Chen told CNA. "Even in high school, you could see he was an all-around talent."

In his first two years of training, Fu progressed from jumps of around 1.9 meters to clearing 2.19 meters. At age 16, he won the men's high jump at Taiwan's National Games.

However, the transition to senior competition was tough for Fu as he struggled through a cycle of injuries, recovery, and competition while striving to improve his performance.

In 2024, another Taiwanese high jumper Yeh Po-ting (葉柏廷) cleared 2.30 meters to break the national record, which Fu said added to his frustration.

"Why couldn't I improve further? I felt I had fallen so far behind," Fu told CNA, adding that it took him a long time to work through that feeling.

Before the start of the high jump final at the Asian Games on Sunday, Fu was initially aiming for bronze, he told reporters later. He felt he was doing well when he cleared 2.2 meters, and it was only after his successful attempt at 2.25 meters did he start thinking of gold, he said.

The presence of his mother at the competition made him feel confident, and he was able to keep his rhythm through to the final, Fu said.

Having established a record as the first Taiwanese male to win an athletics gold medal at the Asian Games in 60 years, Fu has now set his sights on the world championships and one day realizing his dream of competing in the Olympics.

"When I first started athletics in elementary school, I wondered whether I could make it to the Olympics, or even stand on the podium," he said. "Winning an Asian Games gold now makes me feel that my childhood dream has a chance of coming true."