TABLE TENNIS
Taiwanese pair make final
Taiwan’s Cheng I-ching and Li Yu-jhun yesterday advanced to the final at the WTT Star Contender Bangkok, beating Japanese pair Miyuu Kihara and Miyu Nagasaki 3-2 (11-6, 10-12, 9-11, 11-6, 11-5). They face Chinese pair Chen Xingtong and Kuai Man in the final at the Huamark Indoor Stadium. Cheng and Li, the world No. 6 women’s pair, have achieved outstanding results this year, winning at the Amman Challenge in February and taking second at the Goa Star Challenge last month.
Photo: Taipei Times, courtesy of the WTT
BASKETBALL
Wang Nan-kuei dies
Retired Taiwanese basketball player Wang Nan-kuei died in a car crash on the Sun Yat-sen Freeway (Freeway No. 1) early yesterday, the National Highway Police Bureau said. He was 39. Wang’s sedan crashed into a heavy truck at about 1:30am near the 106.4km mark southbound between the Toufen and Touwu interchanges in Hsinchu’s Xiangshan District. The truck had earlier collided with a light truck, with both trucks stopping on the roadway, police said. The freeway section is unlit and the driver of the heavy truck did not place a warning triangle on the road following the first collision, police said. The driver and a passenger in the light truck sustained minor injuries, police said. Wang played in the Super Basketball League from 2007 to 2014. He won the league’s All-Star three-point contest in 2013.
BASEBALL
Yu Chang injured
Taiwan’s sole active MLB player, Yu Chang, is expected to miss six weeks due to a left wrist fracture that requires surgery. The Boston Red Sox utility infielder was pulled from Monday’s game against the Baltimore Orioles following a swing and a miss against a Bryan Baker slider at the top of the seventh inning. The Red Sox on Tuesday placed Chang on the 10-day injured list due to a left hamate fracture. In a social media post on Wednesday, Chang said the injury was “the last thing an athlete wants,” adding that he was scheduled to undergo wrist surgery yesterday. Chang said he was “very touched” by the concern and encouragement he had received, adding that he “can’t wait to challenge Green Monster again.”
SOCCER
“Pele” made an adjective
The word “pele” on Wednesday was added to the more than 167,000 words in the Michaelis Portuguese dictionary printed in Brazil, denoting something or someone extraordinary — the sense in which it is already employed informally in Brazil. “The expression already used to refer to someone who is the best at what they do has been eternalized on the pages of the dictionary,” the Pele Foundation wrote on Instagram. Under the new entry, the word is defined as “exceptional, incomparable, unique” — qualities associated with Pele, who was known as “The King.” He died in December last year at the age of 82.
‘SOURCE OF PRIDE’: Newspapers rushed out special editions and the government sent their congratulations as Shohei Ohtani became the first player to enter the 50-50 club Japan reacted with incredulity and pride yesterday after Shohei Ohtani became the first player in Major League Baseball to record 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a single season. The Los Angeles Dodgers star from Japan made history with a seventh-inning homer in a 20-4 victory over the Marlins in Miami. “We would like to congratulate him from the bottom of our heart,” top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters in Tokyo. “We sincerely hope Mr Ohtani, who has already accomplished feat after feat and carved out a new era, will thrive further,” he added. The landmark achievement dominated Japanese morning news
When Wang Tao ran away from home aged 17 to become a professional wrestler, he knew it would be a hard slog to succeed in China’s passionate but underdeveloped scene. Years later, he has endured family disapproval, countless side gigs and thousands of hours of brutal training to become China’s “Belt and Road Champion” — but the struggle is far from over. Despite a promising potential domestic market, the Chinese pro wrestling community has been battling for recognition and financial stability for decades. “I have done all kinds of jobs [on the side]... Because in the end, it is very
No team in the CPBL can surpass the Taipei Dome attendance record set by the CTBC Brothers, except when the Brothers team up with Taiwanese rock band Mayday. A record-high 40,000 fans turned out at the indoor baseball venue on Saturday for Brothers veteran Chou Szu-chi’s first farewell game, which was followed by a mini post-game concert featuring Mayday. This broke the previous CPBL record of 34,506 set by the Brothers in early last month, when K-pop singer Hyuna performed after the game, and the dome’s overall record of 37,890 set in early March, which featured the Brothers and the
With a quivering finger, England Subbuteo veteran Rudi Peterschinigg conceded the free-kick that sent his country’s World Cup quarter-final into extra-time before smashing his plastic goalkeeper on the floor in frustration. In the genteel southern English town of Tunbridge Wells, 300 elite players have gathered to play the game they love. “I won’t say this is the best weekend I’ve ever had in my life, but it’s certainly in the top two,” said Hughie Best, 58, who flew in from Perth, Australia, to compete and commentate at the event. Tunbridge Wells is the “spiritual home” of Subbuteo, which was invented there in 1946