Despite immense support from the crowds, the local favorites in the 2001 Taipei International Dragon Boat Race placed second against a dominating team from Thailand.
The Center for Chinese Language and Culture (CCLC) had been favored to take the title again, but were outmuscled by the Thais.
The CCLC women's team fared better than their male counterparts, however, taking first place in the women's international division and fourth place overall in the Presidential Cup finals.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Ingrid Jensen, an American serving as the CCLC's captain for her second year, was ecstatic. "It's so fantastic to come back after a setback at Taipei County last weekend and take the international division.
"It's a great feeling. What's even more amazing is that we're a group of women from thirteen different countries, and none of us share the same native language.
"So, to be able to do so well after only five weeks of training, while having to use Chinese to communicate, is great."
In addition to the international division's regular races, the race organizers also arranged a special exhibition race for the international teams to alleviate some of the tension that had developed amongst some of the competitors and the organizers themselves, following a series of miscommunication mishaps during the three-day preliminaries.
Several teams, unable to understand the Chinese announcements, had been forced to forfeit races because they did not know that they were supposed to be competing.
The Presidential Cup finals, featuring the top teams from the eight men's divisions and four women's divisions, was extremely close, with the victors winning by small margins of only a few seconds. In the end, both titles were taken by the men's and women's teams from the Taipei Physical Education College.
Xie Feng-cheng (
Liu? Kuei-you (
"It's been an extremely tiring day: on the third day of the preliminaries, our flag catcher missed the flag, so even though our team was ahead, we lost that race and was forced into the loser's bracket.
"Thus, today, we had to claw our way back up through the loser's bracket and ended up racing six times before the finals.
"To take second place in the finals despite the long and exhausting day that we've had is in itself still a tremendous victory."
The Taipei City Fire Department team, winners of the men's organization's "A" division, came in third place in the Presidential Cup finals, while the Taipei City Government's Commission for Native Taiwanese Affairs team, winners of the men's organization's "C" division, took fourth place overall.
For the women, the Neihu? District Office team, winners of the women's administrative division, came in second place in the Presidential Cup finals, while the the Taipei City Government's Bureau of Environmental Protection team took third.
For some, Cristiano Ronaldo remains the essential spearhead for Portugal’s FIFA World Cup bid, while others believe his presence would prevent Roberto Martinez’s strong side from flourishing. The debate around the five-time Ballon d’Or winner rages on, as it did at UEFA Euro 2024 and four years ago in Qatar — yet Ronaldo endures, ready to play in a record sixth World Cup. The 41-year-old remains a global superstar despite swapping the European elite for Saudi Arabia’s Al-Nassr, and is the leading men’s international goalscorer with 143 strikes. With 25 of those coming in 30 games under Martinez, the coach
Taiwanese tennis star Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the second round of the mixed doubles at the French Open, after she and German partner Mark Wallner defeated Slovenian Andreja Klepac and Briton Lloyd Glasspool in straight sets, despite temperatures exceeding 32°C in Paris, while Taiwan’s top men’s doubles player Ray Ho also reached the second round. Hsieh, who made it to the semi-finals in the mixed doubles at Roland Garros in 2024, and Wallner defeated Klepac and Glasspool 6-3, 7-5 in just more than an hour, converting three of five break points, while holding their opponents to just one conversion
FAST AND LOOSE: Despite command struggles, Ohtani has pitched his way out of trouble after falling behind in counts, which manager Roberts credited to his velocity Shohei Ohtani on Wednesday night tossed six innings of no-hit ball, gave himself an early lead with a home run and still was not satisfied with his performance. The Los Angeles Dodgers’ two-way superstar dropped some expletives that were picked up by the on-field mic as he struggled with his command in a 4-1 win over the Colorado Rockies. He struck out seven, walked four and gave up an earned run in the fourth inning while visibly fuming on the mound. Ohtani (5-2) earned his third consecutive victory. “Just command was off, and I just felt like I was battling the lack of
Taiwanese sprinter Chen Yi-cen on Friday won the silver medal in the women’s 400m final at the Asian U20 Athletics Championships in Hong Kong, with a time of 53.16 seconds. Chen, 15, was the youngest among the eight finalists, and her performance also met the qualifying standard of 53.50 seconds for the Nagoya Asian Games in Japan in September and October. Chen first made her mark at the National Games in Tainan in 2023, at the age of 13, winning the women’s 400m final in 55.55 seconds to become the youngest gold medalist in the history of the event. Meanwhile,
RSS