GOLF
Taiwan’s Chien finishes 4th
Taiwan’s Chien Pei-yun on Sunday finished with an eight-under-par 280 to tie for fourth at the LPGA Founders Cup in Clifton, New Jersey, her best performance so far this year. The 33-year-old narrowly missed a third-place finish with two birdies in the fourth round, but a bogey on the 13th hole left her with just a one-under-par 71. Tied with Chinese duo Yin Ruoning and Lin Xiyi, Chien earned a US$127,984 payday in the tournament. Her previous best finish this year was in March, when she tied for 13th place with Yin and Sweden’s Linn Grant at the HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore. At the Founders Cup, Rose Zhang of the US rattled off four birdies in her final five holes to card a six-under-par 66 to finish 24-under to claim her second professional title.
Photo: AP
RUGBY UNION
Cane to retire from Test play
New Zealand captain Sam Cane is to retire from Test rugby at the end of this year, the side said yesterday, calling time on a World Cup-winning 12-year international career. “Having played 95 Tests — 27 as captain — the 32-year-old has decided to focus on spending more time with family and sign a long-term contract with Suntory Goliath in Tokyo,” New Zealand Rugby said in a statement. His retirement is not a complete surprise, as the All Blacks have not played since South Africa beat them in the World Cup last year and Cane was already on a sabbatical in Japan. Cane said the prospect of a three-year deal with the high-spending Tokyo club was too good to pass up. “I had to weigh up everything and, in the end, with a young family, it seemed like the best decision to help set up our future,” he said. Cane won the World Cup in 2015 with New Zealand and has twice been on Super Rugby championship-winning sides with the Waikato Chiefs.
SOCCER
Enrique bemoans loss
Paris Saint-Germain coach Luis Enrique on Sunday said that matches with celebrations often end badly after his side fell 3-1 to Toulouse ahead of lifting their Ligue 1 trophy in front of fans. Despite their semi-final Champions League loss against Borussia Dortmund last week, fans at the Parc des Princes were thrilled as PSG clinched their record-extending 12th league title two weeks ago. However, Toulouse spoiled the party by handing the champions only their second league defeat of the season. “Matches with celebrations usually end badly, that’s my experience as a professional,” former Barcelona coach Enrique told reporters. “Toulouse were better with and without the ball, they were better from start to finish. There is little to say. I’m a bit disappointed.” PSG fans also paid tribute and bid farewell to the club’s all-time top scorer Kylian Mbappe after the France captain on Friday confirmed he would leave the club at the end of the season. “The fans have paid Mbappe the tribute he deserved, he is a club legend despite his youth,” the Spaniard said. “He still has a couple of games left with us, but I wish him the best of luck with his career.”
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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