Ulaanbaatar: Taiwan continued its medal haul on Saturday at the Asian Taekwondo Championships, with Chen Liang-hsi winning a bronze medal in the men's 87-kilogram middleweight category. At the championships in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Chen made it to the semifinals after defeating Thailand's Jack Woody Mercer 2-0 in the last eight.
According to Focus Taiwan, with a bronze medal secured, Chen then faced Park Woo-hyeok of South Korea. Park, the 2022 World Taekwondo Championships men's 80 kg welterweight champion, proved too tough for Chen, and the Taiwanese athlete lost to his Korean opponent 0-2.
On Chen's performance, his coach Su Tai-yuan said he advanced according to expectations. Su mentioned that with Chen's capabilities, the team had initially designed a strategy to specifically combat Park. However, Park lived up to his reputation as a seasoned fighter, Su said, as he was able to keep up a stable performance even while falling behind.
Su went on to add that while Chen lost the match, the fight was a good learning experience for the Taiwanese athlete. The bronze was Chen's first senior championships medal in his career. Chen's bronze followed Wang Chieh-ling's women's 46 kg gold and Liu You-yun's silver in the women's 49-kilogram flyweight division.
