Sunday, September 7, 2008

The ‘Invitational Games for the Deaf, Taipei 2008’ started yesterday in Taipei, Taiwan. After table tennis and soccer, events from martial arts including karate, judo, and taekwondo were featured mainly in the 2^nd matchday. Unlike the taekwondo event which applied a single elimination rule, events from karate and judo applied round robin rules in their competitions.

Athletes from 7 nations including Argentina, Chinese Taipei (the host), Greece, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Turkey, and the United States were among the main participants this event. As of the most recent lead check, European and American athletes threatened athletes from East Asians with what appeared to be a greater strength.

Guler Muhammed from Turkey accomplished a new record to win his gold medal in Men’s 58kg class. But European and American spectators were witnesses to the performance from the host after Bo-cong Lin and Szu-jou Lu won gold medals from “Men’s 58kg to 68kg” and “Women’s 49kg to 57kg” classes.

The karate event distinguishes classes with different weights, men’s are under 65kg, under 75kg, and over 75kg; women’s just differed with classes at 60kg.

Juan Matias Diaz from Argentina shone in the battlefield with a 3rd-straight-win, to win his gold medal in Men’s under 65kg class; but in Men’s under 65kg class, Russian athlete Evgeniy Pavlyuchenko had to give up, and Takahiro Kojima won his gold medal by defeating his teammate Akinobe Miyashita.

In judo, it was the first time ever that two athletes both won bronze medals in the same class since this invitation games began yesterday. In the men’s under 60kg (class), Akio Kira made a 4th-straight-win to win the gold medal, his teammate, Tomohiro Higashi won bronze medal with local athlete Wei-lun Hsu having the same scores in this class. Jinsub Byeon from South Korea, Sergey Belyaev from Russia, and Susana Monteggia from Argentina, won their gold medals in men’s 60.1kg to 66kg, men’s 66.1kg to 73kg, and women’s 57.1kg to 70kg classes.

Only listed nations who won at least one bronze medal.