The Tour de Taiwan 2002 ended yesterday in Kaohsiung with Indonesia's Ferinanto winning the last stage. But it was Hong Kong cyclist Wong Kam Po (王金寶) who walked away with the top prize after the times for all the six stages were added up.
Wong's total time was 16 hours 48 minutes 8 seconds.
The distance covered during the entire six-day race was 693km.
COURTESY OF CHINESE TAIPEI BICYCLING ASSOCIATION
Second and third places went to Merida International's Matej Jurco and Giant Asia's Romark respectively.
Wong also won the King of the Mountain title, while the sprinting prize went to Ferinanto.
The team title went to Gaint Asia, which ended with a combined time of 50 hours 33 minutes 22 seconds. The team from Hong Kong placed second and Japan won third place.
Yesterday's final leg was a 60km round-city race in Kaohsiung. Ferinanto won the stage with a time of 1 hour and 25 minutes. Fellow Indonesian Matnur won second place and Merida International's Jurco won third place. Ferinanto was in the No. 6 position until the last 200m, when the sprinting champion overtook his rivals.
Continental Taiwan won the team prize for the last leg.
A considerable crowd showed up to cheer for the riders yesterday. The awards ceremony was held at the Grand Hotel in Kaohsiung last night.
A total of 12 teams participated in the event, which included riders from Kazakhastan, Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Hong Kong, as well as Europe, Asia and international teams sponsored by bicycle manufacturers Giant and Merida.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier