Hsin-Yu Lin hopes to dance for Chinese Taipei at first Asian Champs

Chinese Taipei’s Hsin-Yu Lin is striving for a spot in the inaugural IPC Wheelchair Dance Sport Asian Championships to be held this November. Following her performance at the Kazakhstan Open in April, Lin believes there is more work to be done ahead of the Championships, which will be hosted in her home country.

“Our performance was not satisfactory in Kazakhstan, especially in the standard dance,” Lin said. “We need to think about how to improve these shortcomings.”

“In duo standard and combi standard, we need to strengthen and improve [with] practice,” she said.

At the 2016 season opener in Astana, Kazakhstan, Lin finished fifth in the duo standard and seventh in the combi standard with her partner Po Cheng Wu. However, Lin had a promising performance in duo Latin, placing third with partner Tang-Chin Hung. In women’s single, she placed fifth.

Results from the Kazakhstan Open contributed toward world rankings. She is ranked in the top-10 in most of her class 2 categories.

But Lin hopes to move up with her next competition this September in the 2016 World Cup in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Lin will call on the experience of her most memorable competition to date, the 2015 IPC Wheelchair Dance Sport World Cup in Russia. This is where she received some of the best advice she has been given: “learning how to foster understanding between partners.”

“This was my first time winning an international competition,” Lin added.

Lin started her sporting career in wheelchair dance in March of 2011. She originally intended to participate in body sculpting but her discovery of wheelchair dance led her to find, as she puts it, “confidence in motion.” Although practices take up most of her time, she enjoys dancing and feels it has become a part of her daily routine.

“I felt no expertise and no achievements in the past,” Lin said. “ But after learning wheelchair dance, I realised that I insist on not giving up, though efforts may not be successful… My efforts are not in vain, one day, you'll see good results.”

Lin is confident that the first ever Asian Championships will be remembered as a key moment in the sport and makes it an exciting time to be involved in wheelchair dance.

The first Asian Championships in the sport’s history will be held 5-6 November. Around 60 dancers from seven countries are expected for the competition at the Sanchong District Complex Gymnasium, where the New Taipei City Cup Open was hosted in 2015.