Taiwan’s in-line speed skating athletes should be able to capture at least four gold medals at next year’s Asian Games in Guangzhou, China, the head coach of the Taiwanese roller skating team said on Wednesday.
Huang Chin-lung told a news conference that the Taiwanese team is currently training at a “secret base” in Kunming in China’s Yunnan Province, because training at the 1,200m altitude is good preparation for the athletes.
Chiang Pin-cheng, chairman of the Chinese Taipei Roller Sports Federation, said he was confident about the Taiwanese team’s prospects for this year’s World Games in Kaohsiung.
He pointed out that at the 13th Asian Roller Skating Championships held in October at Haining in China’s Zhejiang Province, Taiwanese athletes captured 20 gold, 25 silver and 27 bronze medals.
Roller skating or in-line skating, also known as rollerblading, has been formally included as one of the new sports in the next Asian Games in Guangzhou in 2010.
The sport looks like Olympic ice skating and is held at velodrome-like venues similar to those used for track cycling, except that the embankment is not as steep.
Skaters travel at a speeds of 50kph-60kph.
Marloon Herrera was crying — happy tears. With Cuba trailing in the fifth inning of its Little League World Series (LLWS) opener on Thursday, Herrera lined a two-run double to give his team the lead. When the Czech Republic, representing Europe-Africa, made a pitching change, he ran over to give his third base coach a hug. Cuba went on to win 4-1. It was the first game at this year’s tournament for both sides, but it was also the beginning of Cuba’s second appearance in the series ever — and it was emotional. “You breathe baseball in Cuba,” manager Everaldo Machado said on
Taiwan on Friday beat Australia 11-0 at the Little League World Series in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Taiwan are represented at the tournament by Taoyuan’s Gueishan Elementary School, who won the Asia-Pacific regional tournament to earn the trip to the US. Australia are represented by the Hills Red team from Sydney. Taiwan advanced to a game tomorrow against Santa Clara, representing Cuba, who won 4-1 against the Czech Republic’s Brno, the Europe-Africa regional qualifiers. Australian starter Sayre Howick had a tough time controlling his pitches at Volunteer Stadium, one of which allowed Taiwan to open their account. They scored six in the inning and
World Boxing, an international amateur boxing organization formed last year after a breakdown in relations between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Boxing Association (IBA), has announced the admission of Taiwan, along with four other nations, into its growing list of members. In a statement released on its Web site on Friday, the Swiss- based organization said that in addition to Taiwan, admitted as Chinese Taipei, Bhutan, Ecuador, Fiji and Pakistan have also become members. The new members all have well-rounded national and international boxing programs as well as transparency in the leadership and management of their national boxing programs,
COOLED DOWN: Du Plessis apologized after the fight for comments about his Nigerian-born opponent, after Adesanya said he planned to take the belt back to Africa South African Dricus du Plessis yesterday took a flurry of body hits across four rounds before defeating Israel Adesanya by submission to retain his middleweight championship at UFC 305. After scoring some early takedowns, Du Plessis (22-2) had to withstand a flurry of body strikes from Adesanya through the middle rounds, which appeared to be taking a toll on the 30-year-old South African as the fight progressed. However, a left hook followed by three rights helped bring Adesanya down, giving Du Plessis the opening he wanted as he swiftly got the choke hold that forced the Nigerian-born New Zealander to tap out