Taipei's Lin Chong-You stunts to first male World gold

Lin Chong-You is the first male World Champion of his country Chinese Taipei. The youngster won the category for boys U18 years U55kg in the final against Sato Yuma of Japan. Taipei judo is developing rapidly. At opening day of the World Championships Yang Yung Wei took a seventh place and it was not a surprise that Yang won bronze at the Grand Prix in Tashkent. Also Liao Yu-Jung took a seventh place for women U63kg at the World Championships in Tokyo.

In today’s final Lin surprised Japanese talent Sato and he became the first man on the highest world podium. In 1992 Chinese Taipei had a female World Junior Champion U66kg for women by Chen Chui-Ping. Chou Yu-Ping was a World senior bronze medallist in 1987 in Essen U48kg.

More recent Lee Kai-Lin won the IBSA World Championships in Antalya, but at senior level the performances came with Lien Chen-Ling who won the Grand Prix in Budapest in 2015 and gold at Grand Slam level in 2017 in Baku. Lien who is an experienced judoka became seventh at the World Championships in 2009 and in 2017, but couldn’t reach the podium. This year Lien won the Grand Prix in Marrakech and set Taipei even more on the world judo map.

With new talent coming up with Lin Chong-You and today’s lightweight U50kg Hsu Chun-Kai Taipei can expect a bright future in judo. In Almaty there is a delegation of 10 young athletes. The motivation must be optimal with the first World Gold medal for a young man: Lin Chong You.

Ten athletes out of the 84 Cadet World champion ever, have won a medal at Senior World Championships in their career. Most are obviously still a cadet or junior. Khasan Khalmurzaev even won the Olympic title seven years after his cadet world title. We’re just saying everything is possible for a small judo country like Chinese Taipei. More to expect this week. Seven years is the most common duration to make the a successful transition from cadet to senior, although there are exceptions like Ukraine Daria Bilodid. It took her two years to become senior world champion. Kim Min-Jong (KOR) won gold in the previous edition and took senior bronze last month in Tokyo.