One of the highlights of the World Games so far has been the numerous colorful sets of supporters cheering on their favorite athletes.
Of them all, probably the craziest bunch in Kaohsiung are the Swiss fistball fans.
The fistball addicts, dressed in the red and white of the Swiss national flag, endeared themselves to countless locals during the four-day fistball tournament with their big smiles, friendly nature and catchy chants, ensuring everyone at the stadium enjoyed themselves.
PHOTO: RICHARD HAZELDINE, TAIPEI TIMES
Roman Mattle, 52, from the Swiss town of Frauenfeld, is president of the CFFN, or the National Friends of Fistball Club.
Mattle is a travel agent and uses his professional contacts to organize travel plans for the team, plus any fans who want to follow their fistball heroes around the world. Club members pay 100 Swiss francs (US$94) a year in fees, money that goes to supporting the team.
Speaking over fried noodles and a beer during a break in the fistball action on Sunday, Mattle said last year the club took 96 supporters to a tournament in Namibia.
PHOTO: RICHARD HAZELDINE, TAIPEI TIMES
For the World Games, Mattle organized a 12-day trip for 17 fans and the players that included a few days in Taipei and a sightseeing trip down the east coast to Taroko Gorge and Hualien before arriving in Kaohsiung for the tournament. The group was also due to stop over in Hong Kong on the way back.
And despite the disappointment of seeing their heroes lose in the final, Mattle said the trip was worth it.
“The Taiwanese people are very friendly, helpful. Although we cannot understand one word of the language, we don’t need to. We just need our hands, our faces and our smiles to connect with them,” he said, adding, “We go back to Switzerland and we say Taiwan is one of the best countries outside Europe. We will come back for sure.”
But the Swiss fistball fanatics are not without Taiwanese competition, as anyone who attended a korfball match would know.
For each time the bronze-medal winning korfball team was in action the stands were packed with throngs of noisy, yellow-clad supporters.
Most of them, said Yang Rong-guang, a 26-year-old korfball coach, hail from two schools in Taipei where the sport is popular, Wan Fang Senior High School and Hu Jiang High School.
Talking before Monday’s semi-final against the Netherlands, he said around 75 fans had traveled to Kaohsiung for six days in order to give the Taiwan korfball team some vocal encouragement. Many others came on their own, he said.
And although they failed to inspire the team to victory, there is no doubt the team appreciated their efforts.
Another noisy contingent are the red-shirted fans of Taiwan’s highly successful ladies tug of war team, who bought 140 extremely vocal supporters from Changhua to cheer on the gold-medal winners during Sunday’s competition.
Cheerleading team member Chen Cheng-long said its members are extremely proud of the girls, who hail from the county, and they follow them wherever they compete, including a trip to Italy last year for the world indoor championships.
Cheerleading is of course much easier when your team is as successful as Taiwan’s ladies. But win or lose, the presence of these “fan-atics” has certainly helped to make the World Games a really enjoyable experience.
Taiwan’s men’s table tennis team won bronze on Saturday at this year’s International Table Tennis Federation World Team Table Tennis Championships in London, matching the country’s best-ever finish at the regular tournament. Consisting of Lin Yun-ju, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7, Feng Yi-hsin, Kuo Guan-hong, Hong Jing-kai and Hsu Hsien-chia, the team won bronze after losing 0-3 to Japan in the semifinals. In the opening match, 24-year-old Lin played the first game against world No. 3 Tomokazu Harimoto 11-5, but ultimately lost the next three closely contested games 9-11, 10-12 and 10-12. Feng then faced world No. 8 Sora Matsushima in
Lin Yun-ju on Thursday handed Taiwan two key victories as they advanced to the semi-finals of the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals in London. The Taiwan men’s table tennis team beat Sweden 3-2 in five singles matches. The 24-year-old Lin, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7 and nicknamed the “Silent Assassin,” opened the tie by defeating world No. 2 Truls Moregard 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 13-11) before clinching the deciding fifth match with a 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 11-5) win over Anton Kallberg to hand his team the overall victory. Kuo Guan-hong put Taiwan up 2-0 with a 3-2 (4-11, 11-8, 8-11,
Taiwanese fire dancer Yang Li-wei advanced to the final of Britain’s Got Talent this weekend after receiving a Golden Buzzer during her live semi-final performance. Yang, a member of Taiwan’s Coming True Fire Group, awed judges and audiences with a high-intensity fire performance featuring flaming umbrellas, fire swallowing and spinning metal structures balanced with her legs. Judge Simon Cowell praised Yang as a star, while guest judge KSI reacted with amazement before pressing the Golden Buzzer, sending her to the finals. The dance group wrote on social media that the Golden Buzzer was “the highest honor” on the talent show, adding: “Twenty-three years
As Super Rugby fast approaches its playoff season it finds itself racing toward a reckoning with many issues that threaten the southern hemisphere tournament. A group of stakeholders met in the New Zealand city of Christchurch late last month to address problems that are making the future of the 31-year-old competition increasingly tenuous. The discussion was made more urgent by the decision by the owners of Moana Pasifika to fold the Auckland-based club for financial reasons. That followed the closure of the Melbourne Rebels at the end of the 2024 season, likewise because of financial difficulties. Problems addressed included player retention as more
RSS