Asian victory

Gilas Pilipinas won its first men's basketball gold since 1962 in a 70-60 victory over Jordan at this year's Asian Games last week.

The same outpouring of praises and national pride given in the Philippines for its athletes rained on Taiwanese athletes as they returned on 10-10.

Ninety-six athletes who competed in the Asian Games, the U-18 Baseball World Cup, the Universiade and other international competitions walked the red carpet on the national day celebration in Taiwan to the tune of roaring applause.

What's more touching for the athletes was that, during their flight back from Hangzhou, China, President Tsai Ing-wen ordered two F-16 fighter jets to escort their plane after they entered the flight information region of Taiwan.

The fighter jets even set off decoy flares to congratulate and thank the athletes for bringing honor to the country and themselves.

At the Asian Games 2023, Taiwan finished sixth with a total of 67 medals (19 gold, 20 silver, 28 bronze), tying its best-ever record at the 1998 Asian Games.

This year, the women's judo 57-kilogram, men's judo 60-kilogram, men's tennis doubles, men's go chess individual, men's canoe single 1,000-meter and men's 3×3 basketball competitors of the Taiwan team all garnered their first-ever gold medal at the Asian Games.

It is worth mentioning that the Taiwan men's 3,000-meter roller-skating relay team defeated its South Korean rival and took the gold by 0.01 seconds.

The hero and anchor for Taiwan was Huang Yu-lin. While his Korean competitor Jung Cheol-won prematurely eased up and raised his arms in celebration approaching the finish line, Huang surged ahead, making a split-second decision to extend his left leg to cross the finish line.

In fact, Huang left the venue in tears after being disqualified in the men's 1,000m sprint the previous day before the relay race.

Huang had earlier told reporters he was not sure he would compete the next day because he was so downcast.

"Last night, I kept telling myself I was not willing to compete today but then I looked back at some old posts on social media to encourage myself," Huang said.

Huang initially thought Taiwan had fallen just short in the race.

"I thought it was such a shame that I was just a little bit short, and then the results came up on the screen showing that we had won by one hundredth of a second, and it was just a miracle," he told reporters.

After the race, the Taiwanese athlete said, "I saw the moment when the opponent was celebrating. We were just a few meters short of catching up to Jung Cheol-won. At that moment, I didn't think about anything and just sprinted toward the finish line."

According to reports, Huang Yu-lin was born with a pelvic tilt, and later diagnosed with snapping hip syndrome and limb length discrepancy, but Huang never gave up, working hard to overcome challenges and become a gold medal winner.

Another Taiwanese athlete Gu Shiau-shuang added the final gold by winning the women's karate kumite 50-kilogram weight class gold by jury decision, after her match against her Kazakhstan rival ended 5-5.

"I had waited five years to be on that big stage," the Bunun tribe girl said.

After falling behind 5-0 at the start of the three-minute contest, Gu remembered the advice of her coach to "never give up as long as there is time on the clock, because it only takes one second to score a point."

Gu fought her way back, scoring five points in the last 62 seconds and was ultimately awarded the gold.