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.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
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