Taiwan fail to break ground in taekwondo

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Sydney: Taekwondo made its Olympic debut on Wednesday, but Taiwan's hopes of breaking into the gold medal winners club were dashed when two of their champions failed to get past the quarter-final round.

Taekwondo, an ancient martial art which resembles karate but focuses on kicks with bare feet, is Korea's national sport but is very popular in Taiwan.With no South Koreans entered in the opening two divisions, men's 58-kg and women's 49-kg, Taiwan looked to have a good shot at the gold medals.

But Taiwan's Huang Chih-hsiung (58 kg) and 17-year-old Chi Shu-ju in the 49 kg failed to make it into the semi-finals after winning their first round matches.

Huang lost his quarter-final 1-2 to Michail Mouroutsos of Greece and Chi Ju-shi was beaten by Australia's Lauren Burns, on a superiority decision.Taiwan coach Sung Ching-hung still has two other fighters who will be in action on Thursday.

"We will become sinners for eternity if we do not win a gold," he said recently. Taiwan offers athletes and coaches a reward of T $ 10 million ($ 333,000) each for an Olympic gold, with lesser amounts all the way down to a 10th placing.



(c) Reuters Limited.