Taiwan defeated the Austin Blackhawks of Texas 5-2 on Saturday at the Beep Baseball World Series in the US to claim the championship for the second consecutive year.
With a record of seven consecutive wins in the past four days in the series for visually impaired players, Taiwan Homerun faced the Blackhawks for the second time, after a 7-6 victory in Friday’s game.
Taiwan, who had taken a 5-0 lead, allowed two runs by the seven-time winners the Blackhawks in the bottom of the sixth inning, before sealing the victory.
Taiwan’s Leo Lin won the pitching award with a strikeout rate of 11.68 percent in the tournament.
The series, played at Golden Park in Columbus, Ohio, was established in the US in 1976. Taiwan has participated in the series 12 times in the past 16 years. Taiwanese teams won the championship from 2004 to 2006 and last year.
Officials from the Taiwan Non-Vision Sport and Culture Development Association expressed gratitude for the support of overseas Taiwanese fans, who cheered the team on throughout the tournament.
The association, which relies on donations from companies and the government, said it hopes to have more opportunities to take part in international events in the future. A Taiwanese team was absent from the tournament in 2007 and 2008 as a result of a shortage of funds.
Beep baseball is named after the beeping sound the baseball emits so visually impaired players can hear where the ball is. The bases on the field also make sounds to help guide the players.
Not even a tense tete-a-tete in the gold-medal game on Friday could spoil the vibe at Paris’ biggest beach party. Canada’s Brandie Wilkerson and Brazil’s Ana Patricia got into a shouting match on either side of the net in the tiebreaking third set of the beach volleyball final of the Paris Olympics. The referee tried to keep the peace, but it was the Eiffel Tower Stadium DJ who cooled tempers on the sand by playing John Lennon’s Imagine over the PA system. The players laughed and clapped, the crowd applauded and sang along, Wilkerson was shown a yellow card and the top-ranked Brazilians
China yesterday celebrated one of its best Olympic performances, while some supporters declared China the true winners, if medals won by Hong Kong and self-ruled Taiwan were included. “We are number one out of sovereign countries,” read one comment with more than 1,300 likes on Sina Weibo. Many similar posts included images of an adjusted medal table with medals won by Hong Kong and Taiwan added to the Chinese total. Since Taiwan’s Olympic debut in 1956, its athletes have competed as “Formosa,” “Taiwan,” “the Republic of China,” and since 1984 as “Chinese Taipei.” Hong Kong competes separately from China. Team China racked up 40 gold
PARIS SCOREBOARD: With Lin Yu-ting guaranteed to win a medal, Taiwan has secured at least seven medals in Paris, its second-most after the 12 it won in Tokyo Taiwan boosted its medal total at the Paris Olympics to one gold and five bronzes on Thursday after weightlifter Kuo Hsing-chun’s third-place finish in the women’s 59kg weight class, but it was shut out in taekwondo. Kuo, who won gold in Tokyo Games, took the bronze medal in her weight division with a total lift of 235kg, 1kg behind silver medalist Maude Charron of Canada. China’s Luo Shifang was crowned champion with a new Olympic record total lift of 241kg. She also set a new Olympic record in her third attempt at the snatch by lifting 107kg. Entering her last lift in the
Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo was the toast of Africa after winning the Olympic 200m gold on Thursday, but his immediate thoughts were much closer to home, as he dedicated his victory to his mother who died in May. Tebogo became the first African to win the event when he ran 19.46 seconds to beat the US’ Kenny Bednarek and a COVID-19-hit Noah Lyles to claim Botswana’s first Olympic gold medal and become the fifth-fastest man in history over the half-lap. He did it wearing spikes bearing his mother’s date of birth. “It’s basically me carrying her through every stride that I take,” Tebego told