Taiwanese Olympian Wang Kuan-hung yesterday qualified for tonight’s men’s 200m butterfly final at the World Aquatics Championships, squeezing into the top eight with a time of 1 minute, 54.97 seconds.
Earlier in the day, he finished fourth overall in the qualifying heats with a time of 1:55.17, 0.96 seconds behind Japanese Olympic silver medalist Tomoru Honda.
The 21-year-old Taiwanese won a silver medal in the men’s 200m butterfly at the FINA Swimming World Cup meet in Singapore on Nov. 16, 2018, with a time of 1:52.38, and in 2019 won a silver medal in the men’s 200m butterfly at the Toyota US Open Championships in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1:55.82.
Photo: Reuters
He also won bronze medals in the 200m butterfly at last year’s Swimming World Cup meets in Berlin and Toronto, finishing in 1:51.04 and 1:51.15 respectively, and competed for Taiwan at the Tokyo Olympics.
French star Leon Marchand swam second-fastest in yesterday’s semi-final in 1:54.21, easing into the final a day after smashing Michael Phelps’ last remaining world record.
Marchand won the men’s 400m individual medley on the opening night of competition on Friday, coming home in 4:02.50, more than a second off Phelps’ benchmark of 4:03.84.
Photo: AFP
Set at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, it was the longest-held world record in swimming.
Also yesterday, Britain’s Matthew Richards won the men’s 200m freestyle title in 1:44.30, Lithuania’s Ruta Meilutyte won the women’s 100m breaststroke title in 1:04.62 and American Ryan Murphy won the men’s 100m backstroke final in 52.22 seconds.
It was the US’ second gold medal of the night, after Katie Ledecky won the women’s 1,500m freestyle earlier in the evening.
Australian Kaylee McKeown took home the women’s 100m backstroke title in 57.53 seconds, beating Regan Smith of the US on 57.78 and American Katharine Berkoff on 58.25.
The New Taipei Kings claimed the inaugural Taiwan Professional Basketball League (TPBL) championship on Sunday, defeating the Kaohsiung FamilyMart Aquas 108-89 in the final. Playing at home, the Kings pulled ahead with Jeremy Lin’s (林書豪) clutch three-pointers, securing their victory over the Aquas in the TPBL final. The Kings came out strong in the first quarter, dominating to build a 35-18 lead. By halftime, they had stretched their advantage to 61-38. In the third quarter, the Aquas narrowed the deficit to 12 points, but Lin stepped up, sinking several tough three- pointers to extend the lead. In the final quarter, the Kings pushed the
In an unlikely Ethiopian outpost of one the most French of pastimes, four men are leaning over their petanque balls, arguing over who is winning. Petanque, the bowling game also known as boules, is more readily associated with French village squares where locals launch metal balls at a jack while enjoying an afternoon drink, but for decades, it has also been a beloved pastime for members of a club near the iconic Meskel Square in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. It was founded in the early 20th century to cater to French railway workers, who built a line connecting Addis Ababa
Taiwanese women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei and Australian teenager Maya Joint on Tuesday eased into the Eastbourne Open quarter-finals in England as Hsieh prepares for the Wimbledon Championships next week. Four-time Wimbledon women’s doubles champion Hsieh and 19-year-old Joint fired two aces and converted five of eight break points to defeat Japan’s Shuko Aoyama and Poland’s Katarzyna Piter 6-3, 6-3 in 58 minutes on the grass court. Hsieh and Joint are today to face fourth seeds Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic and Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko, who advanced on Monday with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Quinn Gleason of the US and
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