ASIAN GAMES/Taiwan clinches mixed doubles table tennis gold at Asian Para Games

Hangzhou, Oct. 28 (CNA) Taiwan's Lin Chun-ting (林駿梃) and Lin Tzu-yu (林姿妤) clinched gold on Friday in the mixed doubles class XD17-20 table tennis final at the Asian Paralympic Games in Hangzhou, China.

Despite continuous pressure from Chinese opponents Lian Hao (連浩) and Xiong Guiyan (熊桂艷), Lin and Lin clinched gold with a 11-7, 11-8, 14-16, 11-8 victory.

The Taiwanese duo began their cooperation in July, as Lin Chun-ting told reporters in the wake of the gold medal match, that "Hangzhou might be my lucky land!"

The 32-year-old Lin Chun-ting, who suffers from muscular atrophy in his thumb, was still an engineer two to three years ago before he decided to resume his table tennis career.

He told reporters that after winning the gold medal, he felt like he had made the right decision to return to the sport.

Meanwhile, 23-year-old Lin Tzu-yu, who started playing table tennis in elementary school, suffered a torn ligament in her right hand in a car accident in junior high school.

After clinching two gold medals and one bronze medal at this year's games, Lin Tzu-yu said in the wake of the mixed doubles event that "after five matches in one day, it's exhausting, and I've never participated in such an important sporting event."

"All I want is to see my family now. I'm not home for a while." Lin Tzu-yu added.

Also on Friday, Taiwanese doubles table tennis pairing Chen Po-yen (陳柏諺) and Lee Ching-hsuan (李婧萱) settled for a silver medal after losing to Korea's Seo Yang-hee and Kim Gi-tae in the mixed doubles class XD22 final 11-9, 11-4, 6-11, 9-11 and 9-11.

As of Friday, Taiwan has garnered four gold, four silver and 12 bronze medals at the Asian Para Games.