Following the successful Tokyo 2020 Delegation Uniforms Launch organized by Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee in celebration of 1-year–to go on 23rd July, 2020, another athlete-supporting event, Simulating Matches of Tokyo 2020, is taking the stage from 1st to 8th August, 2020, in Taiwan.
Under the auspices of Ministry of Education and Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee, and organized by National Sports Training Center, the simulating event is aimed to keep the elite athletes motivated towards 2020 Tokyo Olympics in 2021 as well as to assess their performances resulting from the original training programmes set for the Games in 2020.
“Among the 4,000 interviewed athletes, 56% were finding it hard to train effectively; 50% were struggling to keep motivated. The overwhelming findings from a survey conducted by the IOC after its announcement of the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics & Paralympics compel us to take instant responding actions”, explained Mr. Hong-Dow LIN, President of the Chinese Olympic Committee, in his opening remarks for the simulating event in the afternoon on 1st August, 2020. He also encouraged all participating athletes to take advantages of the “extra” year to make higher achievements than expected on the field-of-play of the Games in 2021.
Qualified and close to qualified athletes from the national olympic training teams are challenged by their team mates or challengers nominated by respective national federations throughout an 8-day match calendar. The programme is consisted of 12 sports: badminton, karate, gymnastics, swimming, athletics, archery, shooting, boxing, table tennis, judo, weightlifting, and taekwondo, and a number of interesting match formats are adopted.
Holding the record for most weeks ranked at the top in BWF history, the dominating female badminton player, Ms. Tzu-Ying Tai, this time is challenged by two male players consecutively in the single events in Day 2 and Day 3. Mr. Hsing-Hao Wang, a rising star in swimming and having earned himself a quota in 200M individual relay, also confronts 4-strock allied forces on 2nd August, 2020.
Before bidding his temporary farewell to Taiwan, Mr. Shiau-Cheng Chen impressed everyone at his last match in the morning session on 2nd August, challenging the Top 1 male shuttler, Mr. Tien-Chen Chou, who comments that the best way to wish his young opponent a bright future prior to his enrollment at colleague courses in Hungary is to play the match with all his strength.
Considering the pandemic prevention requirements, the Simulating Matches of Tokyo 2020 is a behind closed door event and broadcasted by Chunghwa Telecom MOD and Taiwan Public Television. Highlights are also available on Youtube Channel of MOESports.
