Taiwan badminton players won two gold and two silver medals at this year’s US Open, which concluded in Los Angeles on Saturday.
Fang Chieh-min and Lee Sheng-mu won gold in an all-Taiwanese final in the Men’s Doubles, easily defeating Chen Hung-ling and Lin Yu-lang 21-19, 21-14.
It was the pair’s fourth consecutive win in as many stops on the tour, and their global ranking, now at eighth, is expected to move up.
Chen and Lin, who ranked 14th in the world and were seeded third in the championship, had to settle for silver.
In the Women’s Doubles, Taiwan players Cheng Wen-hsin and Chien Yu-chin, who ranked fourth in the world and first-seed in the championship, drew their first game against the championship’s fourth-seed Rie Eto and Yu Wakita of Japan, but cruised to a win in the next two games 21-8, 22-20.
It was their second consecutive gold on the tour.
In the Mixed Doubles, Taiwan’s Lee Sheng-mu and Chien Yu-chin finished second to Michael Fuchs and Birgit Overzier of Germany, who won 21-19, 21-14.
The tournament, which began on July 19, has a prize purse of US$120,000.
It has attracted more than 300 players from 33 countries.
A chance encounter during a drunken night out was the unlikely catalyst for breaker Sunny Choi’s journey to the Paris Olympic Games. The 35-year-old American is to showcase her skills before a global audience in Paris when breaking makes its debut on the Olympic stage. Choi is the beneficiary of efforts to attract younger fans to the Olympics, a move that led to breaking’s inclusion for the first time. However, as Choi says, the Olympics was the last thing on her mind when she took up the sport. A freshman student at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, Choi stumbled into breaking
Teenage gymnast Shoko Miyata has been pulled from Japan’s team for the Paris Olympics after being caught smoking and drinking, officials said yesterday. The 19-year-old, a world bronze medalist and captain of Japan’s women’s gymnastics team for the Games, was sent home from their training camp in Monaco and admitted she had violated the squad’s code of conduct. “With her confirmation and after discussions on all sides, it has been decided that she will withdraw from the Olympics,” Japan Gymnastics Association (JGA) secretary-general Kenji Nishimura told reporters in Tokyo. Nishimura said the association had been told that Miyata was seen smoking in a
Taiwan’s participation in the Olympic Games has been a story of politics as much as sports, with the name it has competed under since 1984 — Chinese Taipei — drawing as much attention as its athletes. However, with the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad set to begin in Paris on Friday, the exploits of Taiwan’s athletes past and present who have won 36 medals since the country’s debut in Melbourne in 1956 deserve a nod. Many of Taiwan’s medal winners have gained considerable name recognition, but only two have achieved legendary status — Maysang Kalimud and Chi Cheng, the only medal winners
Country singer Ingrid Andress on Tuesday apologized and said she was drunk after a widely panned performance of the US national anthem at the MLB Home Run Derby. “I’m checking myself into a facility today to get the help I need,” she wrote on Instagram. “That was not me last night. I apologize to MLB, all the fans, and this country I love so much for that rendition.” The MLB is not commenting, spokesperson Matt Bourne said. On Monday night, the four-time Grammy nominee belted an a cappella version of The Star-Spangled Banner, an incredibly challenging song to sing. Clips of her less-than-popular