Despite fears that Typhoon Chebi would disrupt the races, the 2001 Taipei International Dragon Boat Race Championship went off without a hitch. \nWith roughly 105 teams competing in eleven divisions, the three days of preliminaries have yielded numerous electrifying races. \nIn the men's open division, the Hsintien City Administrative Office team -- the winners of last year's Presidential Cup -- are currently sitting in pole position after their narrow 0.96-second victory against the Hsintien City Dragon Boat team. \nIn the women's open division, the Taipei Physical Education College team currently holds the top spot. The top teams in the open divisions, which are the largest divisions, are usually the strongest contenders for the Presidential Cup. \nAs the competition is double-elimination, teams sitting at the top of the winner's bracket are at an advantage, as the only team that can displace them has to first work their way up through the loser's bracket, and then defeat the team in the winner's bracket twice. \nIn the men's international division, Thailand and the Phoenix Sister Cities Connection are competing for the top spot. \nAs in previous years, communication problems have plagued the teams in this division as all announcements are made in Chinese. \nSeveral teams, including two Japanese teams, the Aqua Fortis Dragon Boat Rowing team from the Philippines, and a team from Hawaii, have had to forfeit a race at some point during the three-day preliminaries because they didn't realize it was time for their team to report to the docks. \nFor some teams in the international division, the races are already over. Janie Moor from England, who is serving as captain of the Taipei Language Institute team for her second year and participating for her third, was happy with her team's fifth place finish. \n"The team really came together in their last couple of races, and I'm pleased with their performance-this is the best result we've had in years. The camaraderie was just brilliant." \nOther teams, such as the Center for Chinese Language and Culture's men's team, continue to fight their way up through the loser's bracket. \nSteven Blessing from the US and the captain of this year's team said his boat's chances were pretty good. "The team has performed admirably despite running into several setbacks, including members becoming sick with colds, fever, food poisoning, and the like following our competition last weekend at Bitan.
Two women yesterday morning attempted to hang a banner from the Acropolis in Athens in protest at the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics, but were detained by Greek police. The women, 18-year-old Tibetan student Tsela Zoksang and 22-year-old exiled Hong Konger Joey Siu (邵嵐), both US citizens, are members of the “No Beijing 2022” campaign, a statement from the New York-based organization Students for a Free Tibet said. They, and a third person, entered the archeological site as paying customers, and then Zoksang and Siu climbed some scaffolding, from which they attempted to unfurl the banner. A security officer rushed to them and took
TREBLE CHANCE: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei is eyeing a third title in the California desert after winning in 2014 with Peng Shuai and in 2018 with Barbora Strycova Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Belgian partner Elise Mertens on Thursday cruised into the women’s doubles final at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. It took second seeds Hsieh and Mertens just 54 minutes to defeat Japanese third seeds Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara 6-2, 6-0 in the semi-finals to advance to their second final as a duo. Hsieh and Mertens denied the Japanese duo, winners of a WTA Tour-best five titles this year, a spot in their sixth final of the season as they broke serve five times and won the final nine games. “We’re very happy about the performance. Just
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It is the world’s longest certified foot race: a 4,989km run that takes participants around the same New York block 5,649 times. Thousands of people have climbed Everest — but just 49 have completed the Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3,100 Mile Race, organizers say. Runners finish more than two marathons a day for almost two months, on less than five hours of sleep a night. They cannot rely on changing scenery to keep them motivated as the route is a 883m loop on a concrete sidewalk around a high school in Jamaica, Queens. To mix things up a bit, they alternate between running clockwise
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