The China Post
Date: August 26, 2017
The 42-kilometer roller sports marathon took place Friday, making the Taipei
Supplied by the Taipei Universiade Organizing Committee
Universiade the world’s first international sports tournament to host the event. Chinese Taipei’s Yang Ho-chen and Lee Meng-chu made it a memorable maiden outing, taking gold and silver for the host team, respectively. Yang added the gold to her existing haul of four golds and one bronze, becoming the most decorated athlete of this year’s Universiade.
The event comprises 10 laps of a 4.2-km circuit, testing athletes’ speed and stamina. Yang and Lee sped up toward the end of the event to clinch the two top spots, adding more medals to Chinese Taipei’s coffers following success in the 10,000m points elimination, 1,000m sprint and 15,000m elimination events.
Yang took gold with a time of 1:27:43. “Before the Universiade, (I) didn’t expect to win a specific number of gold medals — I only wanted to give my best,” she said. “Without my coach (Wu Chiung-chu), I wouldn’t be who I am today.” This was particularly well demonstrated before the marathon event, when Wu realized that the men’s top three athletes used relatively small wheels. He discussed this with Yang and the two decided on a last-minute wheel change — something the result reflected was a good call, according to Yang. [FULL STORY]
