The Nantou County-native players in National Team put on a good show at the 19th Asian Games Hangzhou held in October, winning a total of 1 gold, 3 silvers and 1 bronze. In order to encourage and praise these outstanding players, the county government and the Nantou County Sports Association held a celebration banquet in Nan Dou Halls (南島婚宴會館), a wedding banquet hall in Nantou City, on the 27th. County Mayor Hsu ShuHua gave the laurel wreaths to the medalists one by one and awarded the latest revised rich bonuses to give recognition for their hard work and appreciate them for being a feather in Nantou County’s cap.

The celebration banquet was full of joy and lively atmosphere. The medalists participated to enjoyed their exclusive moment of glory, including Gu ShiauShuang (谷筱霜) who won the gold medal in karate women’s 50kg kumite event, Ku TsuiPing (辜翠萍) who won the silver in karate women’s 55kg kumite event, Kan ChiaWei (甘家葳) who won the silver in men’s 71kg boxing event, 10 county players who won the bronze in women's softball event (Ke HsiaAi (柯夏愛), Du YaTing (杜雅婷), Li SzuShih (李思詩), Yang YiTing (楊依婷), Ko ChiaHui (柯佳慧), Chiu AnJu (邱安汝), Chen JingYu (陳靖瑜), Lin ChihYing (林志霙), Ho YiFan (何欹璠), and Chang ChiaYun (張家芸)), Shi ZhengZhong (石政中) who won the fourth place in karate men’s 67kg kumite event, and the father and relatives of Shen HaoWei (申皓瑋), who won the silver in the baseball event.

“There is an old Chinese saying: ten years of practice for one minute on the stage. Every player and coach deserves recognition and support for their hard work in daily training. Nantou County is proud of every player who represents Taiwan at the competitions,” County Mayor Hsu said, “In order to encourage the development of sports in Nantou and widen its resources, the county government has increased the sports budget by NT$15 million in 2024 as funding for long-term education and training.”

In addition, the county government has also revised the sports scholarship and increased the bonus to encourage outstanding players in the county to represent Taiwan at the Asian Games and Olympics. Medalist bonuses have been increased from NT$50,000, NT$30,000 and NT$20,000 for gold, silver, and bronze medals to NT$300,000, NT$200,000 and NT$100,000. The injection of sports funds is expected to assist pressing ahead with various sports policies, providing coaches and players in Nantou County a good sports environment and cultivating more outstanding players to win glory for Nantou County.