BADMINTON
Taiwanese win doubles
Taiwan’s Lee Jhe-huei and Yang Po-hsuan yesterday defeated compatriots Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin in straight sets to secure the men’s doubles title at the Korea Masters in Gwangju. The world No. 17 duo of Lee Jhe-huei and Yang beat Tokyo Olympic gold-medalists Lee Yang and Wang 21-17, 21-19 in 35 minutes. Taiwanese pairings took the top three spots in men’s doubles, after the world No. 11 team of Lee Yang and Wang defeated Taiwan’s Lee Fang-chi and Lee Fang-jen in their semi-final on Saturday.
SOCCER
Striker dies in Albania
Former Ghana striker Raphael Dwamena on Saturday died after a heart attack during an Albanian league match between KF Egnatia and FK Partizani, the Albanian Football Association said in a statement. “Paramedics on the pitch rushed him to hospital, where he died at the age of 28,” it said. Dwamena earned eight caps for Ghana and was once considered one of the country’s rising stars, but encountered several cardiac problems over the course of his career. In 2017, the attacker was unable to join Brighton & Hove Albion due to these health issues, and he eventually moved to Spain. Four years later, the Ghanaian collapsed during a cup match in Austria between his side Blau-Weiss Linz and Hartberg, but recovered and continued his playing career.
TENNIS
Canada advances to BJK final
Canada on Saturday reached the Billie Jean King (BJK) Cup final for the first time with a thrilling 2-1 win over the Czech Republic, setting up a championship match against Italy. Four-time champions Italy beat Slovenia 2-0 earlier on in Seville, Spain, in the first semi-final, winning both singles rubbers. Canada, who were competing in the semi-finals for the first time in 35 years, knocked out the fancied Czechs, who have won the competition 11 times — behind only record 18-time winners the US.
HORSE RACING
Fire kills dozens of horses
Authorities are investigating the deaths of more than two dozen racehorses in a barn fire at an upstate New York track that they believe was deliberately set. The horses were killed early on Thursday after the barn where they were housed at the Tioga Downs Casino Resort complex was set on fire, New York State Police said in a news release. The track and casino are in Nichols, a town of about 2,500 people near the Pennsylvania border. A 32-year-old Athens, Pennsylvania, man was charged with arson, burglary and other counts. State police said that an investigation revealed that an individual entered the barn and intentionally set a fire, causing thousands of dollars in damage. The agency did not disclose a possible motive. Someone who entered the burning barn to try to save horses sustained second-degree burns, police said.
CRICKET
England knock out Pakistan
England on Saturday sent Pakistan crashing out of the World Cup with a convincing 93-run win as Ben Stokes and David Willey helped their team end their miserable title defense on a high in Kolkata. Stokes, who came out of one-day international retirement for the World Cup, scored 84 while Joe Root hit 60 to lift England to an impressive 337-9 in their 50 overs before Pakistan folded on 244 in 43.3 overs.
The qualifying round of the World Baseball Classic (WBC) is to be held at the Taipei Dome between Feb. 21 and 25, Major League Baseball (MLB) announced today. Taiwan’s group also includes Spain, Nicaragua and South Africa, with two of the four teams advancing onto the 2026 WBC. Taiwan, currently ranked second in the world in the World Baseball Softball Confederation rankings, are favorites to come out of the group, the MLB said in an article announcing the matchups. Last year, Taiwan finished in a five-way tie in their group with two wins and two losses, but finished last on tiebreakers after giving
North Korea’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup-winning team on Saturday received a heroes’ welcome back in the capital, Pyongyang, with hundreds of people on the streets to celebrate their success. They had defeated Spain on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the U17 World Cup final in the Dominican Republic on Nov. 3. It was the second global title in two months for secretive North Korea — largely closed off to the outside world; they also lifted the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in September. Officials and players’ families gathered at Pyongyang International Airport to wave flowers and North Korea flags as the
For King Faisal, a 20-year-old winger from Ghana, the invitation to move to Brazil to play soccer “was a dream.” “I believed when I came here, it would help me change the life of my family and many other people,” he said in Sao Paulo. For the past year and a half, he has been playing on the under-20s squad for Sao Paulo FC, one of South America’s most prominent clubs. He and a small number of other Africans are tearing across pitches in a country known as the biggest producer and exporter of soccer stars in the world, from Pele to Neymar. For
Coco Gauff of the US on Friday defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to set up a showdown with Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in the final of the WTA Finals, while in the doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching was eliminated. Gauff generated six break points to Belarusian Sabalenka’s four and built on early momentum in the opening set’s tiebreak that she carried through to the second set. She is the youngest player at 20 to make the final at the WTA Finals since Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. Zheng earlier defeated Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 to book
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