Taiwanese snag silvers and bronzes
individual DETERMINATION: Athletes in martial arts and weightlifting categories competed and tested their mettle against their international opponents yesterday
Staff writer, with CNA and AP
Taiwan’s Lee Wan-ting won the nation’s first silver medal in kurash yesterday, while Tokyo Olympic bronze medalist Chen Wen-huei won silver in the women’s 69kg weightlifting division at this year’s Asian Games.
Lee, 33, finished second after losing 3-0 to Uzbekistan’s Ibodatkhon Agojonova in the women’s 57kg division.
Kurash is a traditional martial art with roots in Central Asia.
Taiwanese kurash practitioner Lee Wan-ting, in blue, spars with Uzbekistan’s Ibodatkhon Agojonova in the women’s 57kg division final at the Asian Games yesterday. Lee ultimately lost 0-3 to take home the silver medal.
Photo: CNA
The sport focuses primarily on throwing techniques, with competitors aiming to force their opponents onto their backs.
Ground techniques, chokeholds and joint locks are prohibited, and bouts are decided solely by standing throws.
Lee was named Best Female Player by the International Kurash Association in 2024.
Taiwanese weightlifter Chen Wen-hui won the silver in the 69kg division of the Asian Games yesterday.
Photo: CNA
She graduated from National Taiwan Sport University in Taoyuan and began practicing judo in elementary school before taking up kurash in college.
Lee had failed to reach the semi-finals at the 2018 and 2022 Asian Games.
Lee’s teammate Wang Ping-chun won a bronze medal in the women’s 57kg kurash division after losing 10-0 to Lee in the semi-finals earlier Sunday.
Taiwanese kurash practitioner Lee Wan-ting shows her silver medal during the awards ceremony for the 57kg division.
Photo: CNA
WEIGHTLIFTING
In weightlifting, Tokyo Olympic bronze medalist Chen lifted a combined 232kg in the women’s 69kg division.
She recorded 106kg in the snatch and 126kg in the clean and jerk.
North Korea’s Song Kuk-hyang won gold for the division with a combined lift of 273kg.
Taiwan has won two gold, seven silver and 18 bronze medals at this year’s Games as of yesterday afternoon.
BIG PICTURE
The Games involve at least 11,000 athletes. That is more than the Summer Olympics two years ago in Paris with about 10,700. And similar to the Olympics, the gap is very wide between the sporting haves, and the have-nots.
Midway through the two-week event, China has won 107 gold medals to second-place Japan’s 31. The overall medal total is closer, but China still leads Japan 176 to 129 through Saturday’s results.
At the bottom of the medal table, four countries have only one bronze medal — Bangladesh, Brunei, Mongolia and Syria.
And another half-dozen countries have yet to win any medals
The global swim stars have been Chinese and Japanese
The six-day swimming competition dominated the first week, and here China piled up 30 golds. Freestyler Zhang Zhanshuo won seven golds and four came in every freestyle distance: the 200-meter, 400, 800 and 1,500. He added gold in three relays.
Chinese 13-year-old Yu Zidi picked up three golds — 200 butterfly and the 200 and 400 individual medleys. Both swimmers should be formidable at the world championships next year in Budapest, Hungary, and the Los Angeles Olympics the year after that.
Despite China’s power, the only world record went to Japan’s Shin Ohashi, who set the record in the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:04.83 seconds.
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