TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Yang Yung-wei (楊勇緯) won a silver for judo Saturday (July 24) as the country’s first medal at the Tokyo Olympics and its best-ever performance in the Japanese martial art.

While he was defeated in the final of the 60 kg category by host country star Takato Naohisa, earlier Yang beat French judoka Luka Mkheidze, earning him the certainty of a medal. The bronze medals were shared by Mkheidze and Yeldos Smetov of Kazakhstan.

Yang’s silver was not only the first medal a Taiwanese athlete scored at the current Olympics, which opened Friday (July 23), but it was also the first ever medal for a judoka from the island and the fastest medal Taiwan ever won at the Games, CNA reported. At past Olympics, taekwondo was the martial art Taiwanese athletes most excelled in.