BADMINTON
Lee loses Korea Open final
Taiwan’s Lee Chia-hao yesterday clinched a silver medal after losing to his Chinese opponent in the men’s singles final at the Korea Open. Lee, who was unseeded in the Seoul tournament, lost 16-21, 22-20, 18-21 to China’s Lu Guangzu in a hard-fought match that lasted 68 minutes. World No. 30 Lee has not beaten world No. 13 Lu in their five matches against each other. Sunday’s win was Lu’s first title on the world tour in six years.
PARALYMPICS
Archer first pregnant winner
British archer Jodie Grinham became the first pregnant Paralympics athlete to win a medal when she took bronze in women’s individual compound, the Paralympics’ social media accounts said on Saturday. Seven months pregnant, 31-year-old Grinham held her nerves to beat Tokyo Paralympics gold medalist and friend Phoebe Paterson Pine by a razor-thin 142-141 scoreline in Friday’s bronze medal matchup. “Baby hasn’t stopped kicking,” Grinham said. “It’s almost like baby’s going, what’s going on? It’s really loud, mommy what are you doing? But it’s been a lovely reminder of the support bubble I have in my belly.” She aims to win a second medal when she competes in the mixed team compound quarter-finals today along with Nathan McQueen.
FOOTBALL
49ers rookie shot
Rookie receiver Ricky Pearsall, this year’s first round draft pick for the San Francisco 49ers, was on Saturday shot during an attempted robbery, the team said. “San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Ricky Pearsall was the victim of an attempted robbery and shooting this afternoon,” the team said. Pearsall was shot in the chest and is in serious but stable condition, the team added. San Francisco Mayor London Breed said the shooting took place in Union Square, a city landmark. “SFPD [San Francisco Police Department] was on scene immediately and an arrest of the shooter was made. My thoughts are with Ricky and his family at this time,” she wrote on X. The wide receiver, who played college football at Arizona State University and then Florida State University, was taken with the 31st pick in the draft by the 49ers. Police identified the shooting suspect as a 17-year-old male.
MOTORSPORTS
Teen takes title without wins
Italian teenager Leonardo Fornaroli yesterday clinched the Formula 3 championship at Monza after a campaign in which he did not win a single race. In a curtain-raiser for the Formula One Grand Prix later in the day, the 19-year-old overtook Australian Christian Mansell on the final corner of the 10-race season to grab third place and snatch the title. That maneuver gave Fornaroli five extra points. He edged Gabriele Mini, who was second in the race and the season standings, by two points, to become the first Italian to take the F3 title. Fornaroli’s French teammate at Trident, Sami Meguetounif, won the race. Fornaroli was second entering the penultimate lap but both Mini and Mansell overtook. “Not my race actually I have to say because I did plenty of mistakes,” Fornaroli said. “We managed to recover at the end in the last corner to get third place and the championship as well. It’s been a great season, even without a win, we managed to win the title.”
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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