Australia’s Casey Stoner ended the season as he began it by taking victory in the Valencia MotoGP on Sunday to register his sixth win of the campaign.
The Ducati rider, who won the season-opener in Qatar back in March, had already made sure of the runner-up position in the championship behind eight-time winner Valentino Rossi.
Pole-sitter Stoner was riding for pride in the final race of the year, but demonstrated his courage by once again riding through the pain of a wrist injury which requires surgery next week.
He finished almost four seconds ahead of last year’s Valencia winner Dani Pedrosa on a Honda who took his 11th podium finish of the season.
“I don’t think anybody really knew how the race would be. Each wet session was different so you couldn’t get an understanding of how the bike was working,” Stoner said after a trying weekend which featured rain in qualifying and sun in the race.
“We were struggling in the wet, and just started to get a good feel when it turned dry. Before we didn’t know what to expect,” he said. “People were finding solutions in the warmup, but our tyres were getting destroyed so we were a little worried. We had a setting that I don’t think we could have equalled if we’d have had all weekend to work on it. We were really lucky to stumble across it.”
Rossi, on a Yamaha and starting from the 10th on the grid, was third for his ninth podium finish in succession and fifteenth of the campaign.
Taiwan last night defeated Cuba 2-0 in their World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Premier12 Group B game at the Taipei Dome and finished the group second. At the Taipei Tianmu Baseball Stadium, South Korea yesterday defeated Australia 5-2, while Japan last night won 11-3 against the Dominican Republic. On Sunday, Taiwan scored two three-run homers in an 11-3 blowout win over Australia at the Taipei Dome to advance to the Super Round. Fresh off a defeat at the hands of defending Premier12 champions and Group B winners Japan the previous day, Taiwan’s offense came out slugging against Australia from the
OFFENSE SHINES: First baseman Pan Chie-kai hit a solo homer in the fifth inning as all 10 batters Taiwan used contributed at least one hit toward their team total of 14 One day after their first shutout loss at the WBSC Premier12, Taiwan yesterday bounced back with a commanding 8-2 victory over the US, keeping their hopes for a spot in tomorrow’s final alive. The win in the Super Round marked Taiwan’s first triumph over the US at a top-tier international baseball tournament since 2003. Their previous win over the US was at the 2003 Baseball World Cup, with only one win in the previous 10 matchups since 1999. Yesterday’s game was tightly contested through the first six innings, with the margin never exceeding two runs. However, the tide turned in the top of
Taiwan scored two three-run homers in an 11-3 blowout win over Australia at the Taipei Dome last night to advance to the Super Round of the 2024 World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Premier12 tournament. Fresh off a defeat at the hands of defending Premier12 champion and Group B winner Japan the previous day, Taiwan’s offense came out slugging against Australia from the off. After taking a walk to first base, Taiwan’s Chen Chieh- hsien (陳傑憲) then stole second before Tseng Song-en (曾頌恩) drew a walk to first in the top of the first inning. Chen then
TWO-NIL LOSS: Taiwan’s best chance to score came at the top of the fifth with the bases loaded and one out, but Venezuela’s Liarvis Breto got out of the jam Taiwan yesterday suffered a shutout 2-0 loss to Venezuela in the opening game of the WBSC Premier12 Super Round at the Tokyo Dome. Taiwan had seven hits, one more than Venezuela’s six, but catcher Carlos Perez’s two-run homer to left field in the bottom of the fourth inning delivered the only runs scored by both teams and secured victory for Venezuela. Taiwan’s best chance came at the top of the fifth inning with the bases loaded and only one out. However, Venezuela reliever Liarvis Breto struck out Chen Chen-wei before reliever Pedro Garcia finished the inning by allowing an infield flyball by Lin
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