Olympic bronze medalist Lee Meng-yuan has become the first Taiwanese athlete to top the International Shooting Sport Federation’s (ISSF) men’s skeet world rankings, while top Taiwanese shooters won golds in each of yesterday’s finals in Taoyuan.
Lee’s 6,610 points put him ahead of fellow men’s skeet medalists from the Paris Olympics Americans Vincent Hancock and Conner Prince.
Lee on Monday said that he was surprised by the result, although he had expected his ranking to rise after the Games, which was also the first time a Taiwanese athlete had competed in men’s skeet.
Photo: Reuters
Despite topping the rankings, Lee said he believed Hancock, who won gold in Paris, was likely still the stronger athlete.
“I’m No. 1 probably because I participated in more international tournaments this year and finished with good results,” he said.
Lee finished first at the Asian Championships in Kuwait in January and fifth at the World Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan, in May.
Photo: CNA
The son of international-level sharpshooter Hsieh Chih-pei, Lee first represented Taiwan at the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, China, when he was 15.
Lee is this week competing at the Taipei International Grand Prix Rifle at the National Shooting Training Base Gongxi Shooting Range in Taoyuan, which started on Saturday last week and ends on Monday next week.
The event — the first-ever top-tier ISSF Grand Prix tournament held in Taiwan — features 140 athletes from 10 countries competing for multiple titles.
All eight Taiwanese Olympians from Paris are competing at the tournament, including Wu Chia-ying, who won gold in the women’s 10m air pistol event on Monday.
Yesterday, Paris Olympian Yang Kun-pi won the men’s trap with 45 points, beating out Italy’s Massimo Fabbrizi, who had 43 points.
In women’s trap, Paris Olympian Liu Wan-yu edged Australia’s Kiara Sioux-lin Dean for the gold, while fellow Olympian Lin Yi-chun took bronze.
Liu and Dean were tied with 40 at the end of the final, forcing a shoot-out.
In the 10m air pistol mixed team event, 17-year-old Cheng yen-ching and partner Chang Lu beat Singapore’s Shirlene Hew Yun Ting and Jia En Teo for the gold medal, while Sung Yu-ting and her brother Sung Chia-yen defeated Singapore’s Hong An Tong and Irna Qistina Binte Noorazlin to win the gold medal in the 10m air rifle mixed team event.
Champagne corks often pop and loud, boisterous cheers are usually heard around Constitution Dock when the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race line honors winner finishes in the Tasmanian state capital. There were no such celebrations this year when the defending champions on board LawConnect won the race in the early hours of yesterday morning, as it came about 24 hours after two sailors died on separate boats in sail boom accidents two hours apart on a storm-ravaged first night of the race. LawConnect, a 100-foot super maxi skippered by Australian tech millionaire Christian Beck, sailed up the River Derwent at just after 2:30am.
‘BOWLINE’ AND ‘ARCTOS’: Roy Quaden was hit on the head by a boom, while Nick Smith was struck by the main sheet and thrown across the boat amid rough seas Two sailors have been killed in separate incidents in the treacherous Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, officials said yesterday, as a string of yachts retired in powerful winds and high seas. One of the crew members, 55-year-old Roy Quaden on Flying Fish Arctos, was hit on the head by a boom as the fleet raced down the New South Wales coast, race organizers said. The other man, 65-year-old Nick Smith, was struck by the main sheet aboard Bowline and thrown across the boat, said David Jacobs, vice commodore of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia. “Unfortunately, he hit his head on the winch, and
Liverpool on Thursday powered seven points clear at the top of the Premier League as the title favorites survived a scare in their 3-1 win against Leicester City, while Bruno Fernandes was sent off in Manchester United’s dismal 2-0 defeat against Wolverhampton Wanderers. Erling Haaland missed a penalty as crisis-torn Manchester City failed to end their dismal run with a 1-1 draw against Everton, but it was United’s travails and Liverpool’s remarkable run that took center-stage. Arne Slot’s side were shocked by Jordan Ayew’s early strike at Anfield, but the leaders recovered their composure to equalize just before the interval through Cody
HAT-TRICK PREP: World No. 1 Sabalenka clinched her first win of the season, as she aims to become the first woman in 20 years to win three Australian Opens in succession Coco Gauff, Jasmine Paolini and Taylor Fritz yesterday all clocked impressive wins as tennis powerhouses Italy and the US surged into the quarter-finals of the mixed-team United Cup. World No. 3 Gauff swept past Croatia’s Donna Vekic 6-4, 6-2 to avenge a loss at the Paris Olympics, while Fritz took care of Borna Coric 6-3, 6-2 in searing Perth heat. That was enough to put the Americans — last year’s winners — into a last-eight clash with China today, while Elena Rybakina’s Kazakhstan today are to meet defending champions Germany, led by Alexander Zverev, in the other Perth quarter-final. In Sydney, the in-form