Taiwanese sprinter Chen Wen-pu (center) races against Chinese runner Deng Xinrui on Friday. Photo courtesy of STUDIO HORIZON / Yuet LI
Taipei, Feb. 7 (CNA) Taiwanese sprinter Chen Wen-pu (陳玟溥) made several achievements at the 12th Asian Indoor Athletics Championships in Tianjin, China on Friday, winning a silver medal in the men's 60 meters and setting a new national record.
Chen, 27, won the medal with a 6.60-second sprint, falling just 0.01 behind Chinese sprinter Deng Xinrui's (鄧信銳) gold medal-winning 6.59 seconds.
The young Taiwanese sprinter's time was 0.02 seconds ahead of third-place winner Saudi Arabian runner Abdullah Mohammed Dawood's 6.62 seconds.
At the round heat earlier that day, Chen was already in good condition when he came out on top of seven other runners during his 60m qualifier, leading the pack with a time of 6.61 seconds, his initial personal best at the championships.
He once again became the leader of his semi-final heat with 6.61 seconds to qualify for the final, where he updated his personal best to 6.60.
Aside from the silver medal and a new personal best, Chen's time also set a new national record in Taiwan, faster than the previous 6.68-second record set by Cheng Hsin-fu (鄭新福) in 1988 at an indoor athletic event in Osaka, Japan.
The 2026 edition of the indoor athletics championships also marked Chen's return to the international stage after recovering from an Achilles tendon injury he suffered at the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.
He was finally able to compete professionally again after a year of physical therapy, with his first significant comeback performance observed in October last year, when he clocked 9.95 seconds in the men's 100m final at Taiwan's 114th National Games in Yunlin County.
Speaking with CNA, Chen's coach Sun Nien-tsu (孫念祖) praised his silver-medal sprint, saying that champion Deng is a pretty challenging opponent.
Sun explained that, with Taiwan lacking a training facility for indoor sprints, Chen actually performed quite well, considering the resources the 27-year-old had to work with.
Sun also said that Chen only started training at the Taiwan Sports Training Center last Sunday as a member of the 2026 Asian Games training team so that he could become one of Taiwan's prospective representatives at the event planned for Japan's Aichi Prefecture between September and October this year.
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