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.
A seven-year-old horse had to be euthanized on Friday after breaking its back on the final fence of a Grand National steeplechase race that it won despite sustaining the serious injury. It follows the death of four horses at the Cheltenham Festival last month — including one after the prestigious Gold Cup. Gold Dancer was competing in the Mildmay Novices’ Chase during Ladies Day at Aintree’s Grand National Festival. The horse managed to cross the finish line approximately four lengths ahead of runner-up Regent’s Stroll. “The winner of our second race of the day, Gold Dancer, was pulled up after
Taiwanese gymnast Tang Chia-hung on Sunday topped the men’s horizontal bar event at the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) World Cup in Osijek, Croatia, scoring 15.233 to take his third title this season. Tang delivered an outstanding performance in the final, earning a difficulty score of 6.500 and an execution score of 8.633 with a 0.1 stick bonus. His closest competitor was Milad Karimi of Kazakhstan, who finished second with 14.933 points. It was Tang’s third gold medal in the FIG World Cup series this year, following his horizontal bar wins in Azerbaijan on March 8, and in Turkey on March
The Daredevils yesterday took eight catches in the final as they eked out a victory in the Taiwan Cricket Triangular Tournament against PCCT at Yingfeng Cricket Ground in Taipei’s Songshan District. PCCT’s batting lineup collapsed after they asked the Daredevils to bowl in the T20 decider of the weekend tournament that also involved the Formosa Cricket Club. PCCT were bundled out for 76 in 16.2 overs against a disciplined Daredevils attack. Ninad Malwade was the top scorer in the innings with 21, but he was among those who offered chances to the fielders. Shane Ferreira and Jason Cameron took three wickets each, with
This year’s Taiwan Athletics Open, which offers Taiwanese athletes an opportunity to compete against their international peers, would be held under a new name after its organizers had earlier announced the event’s cancelation. In a statement issued yesterday, the Chinese Taipei Athletics Association said the competition would still take place on June 6-7 at Banciao Stadium, but under the name “New Taipei City Athletics Open 2026.” The event was given a new name to emphasize its local identity and conform with the international practice of naming World Athletics Tour events after cities, the association said. It said it would soon
RSS