Paris, July 28 (CNA) Taiwan’s top badminton and tennis players Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎), Chou Tien-chen (周天成), Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇) and Tsao Chia-yi (曹家宜) all secured their first wins at the Paris 2024 Olympics on Sunday, while the women’s archery team was eliminated in the quarterfinals.
In badminton, Taiwanese ace shuttler Tai defeated Belgium’s Lianne Tan 21-15, 21-14 in the group stage of the women’s singles in just 38 minutes, while it took Chou 43 minutes to beat Luis Ramon Garrido of Mexico 21-17, 21-13 in the men’s singles event.
Lee Yang (李洋) and Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟), the badminton duo who took gold in Tokyo, secured their second group stage win by defeating Denmark’s Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen 21-15, 19-21, 21-15.
In the mixed doubles event, however, Ye Hong-wei (葉宏蔚) and Lee Chia-hsin (李佳馨) saw their run in Paris come to a halt after losing 14-21, 13-21 against Japanese shuttlers Yuta Watanabe and Arisa Higashino in the group stage.
In table tennis, Taiwan’s Lin Yun-ju (林昀儒) advanced to the next round after defeating Brian Afanador of Puerto Rico 4-1 in the men’s singles round of 64. Lin, who also paired with Chen Sze-yu (陳思羽) in the mixed-doubles table tennis event, lost 2-4 in their quarterfinal match against Chinese duo Wang Chuqin (王楚欽) and Sun Yingsha (孫穎莎) earlier in the day.
Furthermore, Cheng I-ching (鄭怡靜) won 4-0 against Sarah Hanffou of Cameroun in the women’s singles round of 64, while Kao Cheng-jui (高承睿) won 4-1 against Nima Alamian of Iran. Win their victories, both Cheng and Kao advanced to the round of 32 in Paris.
In boxing, Taiwanese female boxer Chen Nien-chin (陳念琴), who is competing in the 66-kilogram class, defeated Moronta Hernandez of the Dominican Republic 4-1 to advance to the round of 16.
Hsieh Su-wei, Taiwan’s top tennis player who is pairing with Tsao Chia-yi in the women’s doubles at the Paris Olympics, won their first-round match 7-6, 7-5 against Irina-Camelia Begu and Monica Niculescu of Romania.
In archery, the women’s team, consisting of Chiu Yi-ching (邱意晴), Lei Chien-ying (雷千瑩), and Li Tsai-chi (李彩綺), lost 2-6 to South Korea in the quarterfinals.
