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It's curtains for Lien Chen-Ling of Taiwan

It's curtains for Lien Chen-Ling of Taiwan

22 Oct 2024 20:15
by JudoCrazy and JudoInside
IJF Gabriela Sabau / International Judo Federation

Lien Chen-ling, 36, the top female judoka from Taiwan, has announced her retirement and transition to coaching. Lien will be coaching for Japanese conglomerate Komatsu’s judo club. Though a Taiwan national, Lien did the bulk of her training in Japan.

Although her prominence as a top Taiwanese judoka has since been eclipsed by Yang Yung-wei, a World and Olympic silver medallist, for a very long time Lien was the only Taiwanese judoka who consistently medalled at international competitions.

She was the first Taiwanese player to have medalled at an IJF World Tour event. In fact, she has three IJF World Tour gold medals: 2015 Budapest Grand Prix, 2017 Baku Grand Slam and 2019 Marrakech Grand Prix. She was also the 2023 Asian Game Champion. She defeated Japan’s Momo Tamaoki to win the gold there.

Although she had good throwing skills, it was her newaza that really stood out. She was particularly good at the reverse sankaku and once even pinned the great Kaori Matsumoto of Japan with it for ippon.

Lien told Taiwanese media that age was a significant factor in her decision to retire. Interestingly, she has not ruled out competing in Taiwan’s National Games, in the future. She expects to take on her new coaching role at Komatsu in November.