Taiwanese athletes picked up another four medals at the East Asian Games yesterday, but the team dropped a place on the medals table as Hong Kong picked up two more gold medals.
Taiwanese shooter Tu Yi Yi-tzu picked up a silver medal in the women’s individual 10m air pistol competition and then added another in the 10m air pistol team competition alongside her teammates Wu Chia-ying and Yu Ai-wen.
The women’s badminton team — Chen Hsiao-huan, Chen Shih-ying, Cheng Wen-hsing, Chiang Kai-hsin, Hsieh Pei-chen, Kuo Yu-wen, Pai Hsiao-ma, Tai Tzu-ying, Tsai Pei-ling and Wang Pei-ron — also picked up a silver medal, while in the fencing, the women’s team in the sabre category — Chen Yu-ling, Lin Yi-chun, Chen Hui-hsuan and Wu Yi-chi — claimed the bronze.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
China led the medals table at press time yesterday with 75 gold medals, followed by South Korea with 20 and Japan with 15. Hong Kong overtook Taiwan to claim fourth place with seven gold medals after they won both the men’s and women’s team squash competitions, while Taiwan slipped to fifth place with five gold, 11 silver and 17 bronze.
BASKETBALL
By Paul Huang
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
Contributing reporter
Taiwan made it two wins in a row with an 83-59 win over Guam in their second preliminary game in the men’s basketball competition at the East Asian Games in Tianjin yesterday afternoon to remain unbeaten at 2-0 in the tournament.
Doug Creighton made the most of his starting assignment with a game-high 19 points to lead Taiwan, highlighted by a stunning eight-for-12 shooting from the field with three three-pointers to his credit.
Coming into the game as heavy favorites, Taiwan did not play their regular starters as much as usual in the interest of resting them while giving the reserve players more floor time. That kept Guam in the game for a good part of the first half as they trailed the Taiwanese by one after the opening quarter and kept the deficit to seven points for a 32-25 score at the half.
That was the extent Guam managed to keep pace with Taiwan as they rolled off a 21-10 run in the decisive third quarter and topped it with a 30-point fourth to come away with a landslide victory.
Three different players scored in double-digits for Taiwan compared with Guam’s one, with Liu Cheng and Tsai Wen-cheng also turning in solid performances for skipper Hsu Chin-che.
Next up for Taiwan in Group A play will be Mongolia, who topped Guam by a dozen in their opener on Wednesday afternoon. The Islanders should not have too much trouble in this game as they are expected to earn the top berth out of the group after edging past South Korea in the opener by a 79-76 margin on Wednesday.
BASEBALL
By Paul Huang
Contributing Reporter
Failing to uphold an early 3-0 lead, Taiwan allowed hosts China back in the game with an eighth-inning rally that tied the score at 3-all, before yielding the game-winner in the bottom of the tenth to lose a 4-3 decision in extra innings in the baseball preliminaries of the East Asian Games at the Tianjin Sports Center’s Baseball Field yesterday afternoon.
It was the first defeat that the Islanders suffered after winning all four of their previous matches in the preliminaries. Even though the loss did not affect their chances for advancement into the medal rounds, it should serve as a wake-up call for them as they look to finish the preliminaries strong with a tough battle against South Korea tomorrow afternoon.
What should have been a relatively easy win turned into a dog fight for the Islanders as they failed to solve the stellar pitching of China reliever Li Xin, who came on in the fourth and held the previously unbeaten Taiwanese to two hits the rest of the way en route to claim just China’s third victory over Taiwan in international baseball competitions.
“Our batters were a bit surprised at how effective Li was; the scouting report did not say that Li had as good command in all his pitches as he did in the game,” Taiwan manager Lu Ming-tzu said after the game.
His troops were held to only three early runs off China starter Yang Hai-fan after averaging over 20 runs per game in their four previous contests.
Taiwan will take a well deserved day off today before tomorrow’s showdown against South Korea, in which a win can still give them the top-seed berth in the medal rounds.
The opening pitch is scheduled for 1pm.
Inter on Sunday were given a letoff when they snatched a late 1-1 derby draw with AC Milan, while league leaders SSC Napoli were held by a late goal at AS Roma. Reigning champions Inter remain three points behind Napoli, who looked to be heading five clear as they led in Rome until Angelino volleyed in a stunning leveler in the first minute of stoppage-time. Angelino’s strike gave even more significance to Stefan de Vrij’s last-gasp equalizer at the San Siro. The defender forced home Nicola Zalewski’s knockdown just as it looked like Tijjani Reijnders’ opener would be enough for Milan. “I can
The Washington Capitals and Winnipeg Jets on Saturday did not disappoint in a thrilling midseason matchup in front of a fired-up sellout crowd of more than 18,500 fans. The top two teams in the NHL delivered with a combined nine goals, including the 877th of Alex Ovechkin’s career to put him 18 back of breaking Wayne Gretzky’s record. That tied the score, the Jets pulled it out in overtime and just about everyone involved got their money’s worth out of the 5-4 game. “We knew how we were both sitting in the standings and both having real good years,” Winnipeg coach Scott
BACK-TO-BACK: The League One club, which is owned by stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, is sparing no expense to clinch promotion to the Championship Hollywood endings are pricey, even in England’s third division. In pursuit of their third straight promotion, Wrexham AFC splashed some cash at League One rival Reading to secure the services of striker Sam Smith. The Welsh club owned by actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney confirmed the signing of the 26-year-old Smith on Friday. He is one of the top scorers in the third division. The transfer fee was not disclosed, but British media widely reported it to be about ￡2 million (US$2.48 million) — not extravagant, but a hefty price at this level and it would be about the same figure that
Santiago Castro on Tuesday had an immediate impact off the bench as he scored the goal to send Bologna into the Coppa Italia semi-finals for the first time in 26 years. Bologna won 1-0 against last year’s runners-up, Atalanta BC, and are to play either holders Juventus or Empoli in the final four. Juventus are to host Empoli in their quarter-final on Feb. 26. The last time Bologna reached the semi-finals was in 1999, when they lost 4-2 to ACF Fiorentina. There were chances for both sides in a high-tempo match in Bergamo, but it was Bologna who broke the deadlock 10 minutes from
RSS