ASIAN GAMES/Taiwan's sprinters break national record, win Asian Games relay silver

Nagoya, Sept. 29 (CNA) Taiwan's men's 4x100-meter relay team won silver at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Monday night, winning Taiwan's first medal in an Asian Games relay since 2010 while breaking the national record in the event with a time of 38.32 seconds.

Lai Po-hsiang (賴柏翔), Chen Wen-pu (陳玟溥), Huang Zuo-jyun (黃左軍) and Yang Chun-han (楊俊瀚) finished behind China, which won in 38.17 seconds. South Korea took bronze in 38.43. Taiwan's previous national record was 38.41, set in June.

The silver was Taiwan's third athletics medal at this year's Games, following Fu Chao-hsuan's (傅兆玄) men's high jump gold on Sunday and Lin Chung-wei's (林仲威) men's 400-meter hurdles bronze earlier Monday.

Lai kept Taiwan in contention on the opening leg before passing to Chen, who ran the back straight. Huang closed the gap around the bend, and anchor Yang overtook South Korea to secure second place.

Yang, 29, was competing at his fourth Asian Games and won a medal for the third consecutive games. He said the team had felt good after Sunday's heats and believed gold was within reach.

"I had even thought of what I would say if we won gold," Yang said, adding that the silver -- his first Asian Games relay medal -- was nevertheless special.

Huang became tearful after the race as he thanked his mother, who died in March. He said he had prayed to her after experiencing a physical problem following the heats, hoping he could finish the final and help the team win a medal.

Chen also raced through injury. He said a torn plantar fascia in his left foot, sustained in July, had kept him from training in spikes until two weeks before the Games and still made every step painful.

With the silver, Taiwan's medal tally rose to three golds, eight silvers and 23 bronzes.