GOLF
Kim A-lim hits ace
Kim A-lim of South Korea on Friday sank a hole-in-one on the par-three ninth and birdied the final two holes for a five-under 67 and a one-stroke lead over Russia’s Nataliya Guseva at the Lotte Championship in Hawaii. “Calculate number and then chose line and then hit it,” said Kim, who used a nine-iron on the 140-yard ninth hole. “I think 99 percent lucky.” Taiwan’s Hou Yu-sang hit a 73 at the Hoakalei Country Club to go with her first two rounds of 70 and 74. She was 217 overall and in a share of 58th.
Photo: AFP
TABLE TENNIS
Taiwan’s Lin reaches semis
Taiwan’s Lin Yun-ju on Friday advanced to the semi-finals of the men’s singles at the WTT Champions Frankfurt in Germany. Lin defeated Hugo Calderanol of Brazil in the quarter-finals 3-2 (11-8, 9-11, 11-5, 4-11, 11-9), his third five-game match out of three at the tournament. He was to play after press time last night against China’s Lin Shidong, who beat Sora Matsushima of Japan 3-1 (11-2, 8-11, 11-7, 11-9) to make the last four.
Photo: AP
BASEBALL
Sasaki given MLB nod
Japanese pitcher Roki Sasaki yesterday was given the green light to move to the MLB. Sasaki, widely regarded as one of the best players in Japan’s domestic league, would be posted for a potential move to the US, said his club, the Chiba Lotte Marines. That means MLB clubs will have the right to bid for the 23-year-old right-hander this off-season, in an agreement between the Japanese and US leagues. Sasaki threw a perfect game in April 2022 and was part of the Japan team who won last year’s World Baseball Classic. Sasaki said he had “nothing but gratitude” to the Marines for agreeing to post him. “You only get one baseball career and I don’t want to have any regrets,” he said.
SOCCER
OFC invites Australian clubs
Australian clubs have been invited to join the Oceania Football Confederation’s new OFC Professional League, almost two decades after the nation left the Pacific’s regional body to switch to Asia. The Auckland, New Zealand-headquartered OFC, which represents 11 full member associations and two associate members, on Friday issued the invitation to clubs from Australia ahead of the start of the new competition in 2026. “OFC’s consideration of an Australian based club reflects the strong Pacific communities across Australia and the ease of travel access to Pacific nations,” the body said on its official Web site. The proposed move would bring “significant benefits, including increased visibility and market reach, enhanced competitive standards, stronger economic and cultural links, and new development pathways for Pacific players,” the OFC said.
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
Taiwan’s top table tennis player Lin Yun-ju made his debut in the US professional table tennis scene by taking on a new role as a team’s co-owner. On Wednesday, Major League Table Tennis (MLTT), founded in September last year, announced on its official Web site that Lin had become part of the ownership group of the Princeton Revolution, one of the league’s eight teams. MLTT chief executive officer Flint Lane described Lin’s investment as “another great milestone for table tennis in America,” saying that the league’s “commitment to growth and innovation is drawing attention from the best in the sport, and we’re
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
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
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