Taiwan's youth team racked up medals in Japan last weekend

上週末台灣青年隊在日本田徑錦標賽贏得獎牌

Lin Hsiao-hui leads the way, breaking the U20 national record in the women’s 100-meter hurdles


TAIPEI (Taiwan News)— Taiwan’s national youth team collected many medals, personal bests and a new national record at the 18th Asian Junior Athletics Championship in Gifu, Japan.

Over the weekend (June 7-10), Taiwan's team snatched a total of three gold medals and two silver medals for the men’s team and one gold medal, three silver medals and four bronze medals for the women’s team. In addition to the medal count, Taiwan’s team snagged a new national record in the U20 division (athletes under 20 years old).

Lin Hsiao-hui (林曉慧) ran a new national record and personal best with her third place finish in the 100-meter hurdles, with a time of 13.61 seconds. The previous record was set by Cheng Tang-hsiu (鄭唐秀) two years ago at the National Secondary School Games, a time of 13.70 seconds.

Despite being plagued with an injury to her right heel, Lin preserved and lead the women’s team with a great performance. Fellow hurdler Yang Jui-hsuan (楊睿萱) finished second in the 400-meter hurdles with a personal best of 58.89 seconds and third in the open 400 meters with a time of 54.74.

On the men’s side, Wei Tai-sheng (魏泰陞) led the way with his first place finish in the 200 meters with a time of 21.05 seconds. He also competed in the 100 meter dash, finishing fifth with a time of 10.50 seconds.

Wei was also a member of the 4x100-meter relay that finished a close second with a time of 39.72 seconds, behind Japan (39.65). The other three members of the relay team include Lin Yu-tang (林昱堂), Lu Hao-hua (盧浩華), Yeh Shou-po (葉守博).

Lu also won gold in the the 110-meter high hurdles race with a personal best time of 13.61.

For the women’s field events, Li Hui-chun (李慧君) won the Javelin with a throw of 55.36 meters (181 ft, 7.5 in). Wu Chia-ju ( 家如) finished third in the Pole Vault with a jump of 3.60 meters (11 ft, 9.7 in) and Kuo Pei-yu (郭佩妤)- also finished third in the Shot Put with a throw of 14.76 meters (48 ft, 5 in).

In the Heptathlon, Chen Tsai-chuan (陳彩娟) grabbed silver with a combined score of 4,925 for the seven-event competition. Taiwan claimed gold and silver in the Men’s Decathlon with Wang Chen-yu (王晨佑) scored 7,200 points and Wand Yu-hsiang (王昱翔) with 6,704 points; both improving on their personal bests.

For the full results from the 18th Asian Junior Athletics Championship, go to JAAF official website.