There was a large crowd at the Yingfeng Sports Park in Taipei yesterday morning for the final match in Group B of the Deaflympics women’s soccer competition, as the group’s unbeaten teams, Russia and Great Britain, faced off.
Both had already qualified for the semis, but there was more than pride at stake. Members of the US squad were in the crowd, watching to see who they would be playing, and both teams wanted to win to avoid the winners of Group A.
Britain took the lead in the 13th minute through Danielle Evans.
A crazy four-minute period just after the half-hour mark put Russia on top as they scored three times, two for captain Svetlana Gagarina and the other from Margarita Sayfutdinova.
Britain were given hope again two minutes into the second half when a defensive mixup left the goal at the mercy of Camilla Willis, who made no mistake.
Russia reimposed their superiority in the 55th minute when Veronika Nazina scored with a shot from the edge of the area that just dipped under the crossbar and past Britain ’keeper Carly Waters. Three minutes later, skipper Gagarina notched her hat-trick in style with a bicycle-kick from the edge of the penalty area that flew into the back of the net.
Russia completed their 6-2 victory in the 74th minute when Waters couldn’t collect at the feet of the onrushing Irina Degtyareva and the ball rebounded off the Russian and into the net.
The result meant Britain will face the US, while Russia will play Germany, who won a dour match against Denmark 1-0 to finish as runners-up in Group B. Stefanie Ziegler scored the only goal of the game for Germany.
In yesterday’s other match, Japan grabbed their only victory of the tournament with a 5-0 win over Thailand. Nami Terai scored two and Nana Kawabata, Rie Hamada and Minami Aizu one each. The result meant that Thailand finished pointless and goalless having conceded 43 in three matches.
■BEACH VOLLEYBALL
STAFF WRITER, WITH CNA
The Taiwanese men’s and women’s duos were both defeated yesterday at the Taipei Deaflympics beach volleyball tournament at the Pacific Green Bay Beach Resort in Wanli, Taipei County.
The women’s team — Chou Pei and Yu Tzu-hsuan — lost to Israeli duo Evgenya Matvienko and Tatiana Lavrov in straight sets, 14-21,13-21.
The pair are scheduled to face the Japanese duo of Nozomi Hirai and Satoko Emoto today, the last day of the preliminary round.
In the men’s competition, Chu Chun-pu and Lin Shin-te lost to Germany’s Stephan Schafer and David Bednarek 18-21, 22-24, and face US duo Steven Haynie and Josh Malasheskie today.
Thai women’s badminton player Pitchamon Opatniputh became the first known doping case at the Asian Games in Japan yesterday, testers said. The 19-year-old returned a positive test for banned substance furosemide and has been provisionally suspended, the International Testing Agency said. The teenager, ranked 18th in the world and regarded as a rising star back home, had been due to face China on Tuesday. The first full day of badminton action at Asia’s biggest sporting spectacular was on Sunday. “The athlete is prevented from competing, training, coaching or participating in any activity during the Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya 2026,” the ITA said. The agency noted
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