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Taiwan ready to roll at Asian X-Games finals

Takeshi Yasutoko skates the vert ramp in Kuala Lumpur, earlier this week. The Asian X-Games start this weekend, featuring a dozen competitors from Taiwan. PHOTO COURTESY ESPN

"Diplomacy through sports," gets taken to a new, extreme level, this weekend as a dozen of Taiwan's youngest athletes compete in the Asian X-Games finals in Kuala Lumpur.

The elite field was pared from a pool of 115 entrants who participated in three days of qualifying rounds held from Nov. 1 to Nov. 3 at the Warner Village Complex in Taipei.

Top three finishers from each segment -- skateboarding, in-line skating, BMX -- were invited to the finals in Malaysia, with the potential of qualifying for the Summer X-Games IX held later this year in Los Angeles, California.

Taiwan's skateboard hopefuls include Cho Chung-wei (卓群偉), Chen Chia-hui (陳家輝), and Kang Che-wei (康哲偉). Though officially ranked second in Taiwan, Chen is among the favorites after achieving an eighth place finish in last year's event held in Phuket, Thailand.

Taiwan's skateboarding trio will only compete in the "street" or "park" competitions as there was no "vert" component at the qualifiers held in Taiwan.

This omission was recently remedied with the opening of the new Taipei Extreme Sports Park near Chungshan Stadium. Now, local skateboarders can refine their flip tricks and big airs on a regulation ramp that, at its tallest point, stands 5.5m.

Taiwan's in-line skaters have also been making good use of this newly constructed vert ramp, though their forte will also be the street competition. Taiwan's in-line delegation is headed by Chen Chi-chuan (陳奇權), Hung Chian-kai (洪建凱), and Chang Hang-yi (章弘毅).

Some pundits believe they may do better than expected as in-line skating is now as ubiquitous in Taipei as English cram schools; something which is attributable to long-time resident, Geoffrey Le Cren, who opened an in-line skate shop in 1996, and soon thereafter, began teaching lessons at the CKS Memorial Hall.

The nation's in-line skaters will face stiff competition, however, as Japan's Yasutoko brothers, 19-year old Eito and 16-year old Takeshi, are not only Asian champions, but also world champions.

The pair were raised at their father's skateboard park and have dominated in-line skating for the past few years, making international appearances, such as a November visit to Taipei as part of the X-Tour.

As for Taipei's BMXers, they will be represented by Liao Wu-hsung and Cheng Bang-chung, two talented riders who are well known on the local scene.

Liao will hope to do better than last year, when he racked up a fourth place finish in the Asian X-Games BMX vert competition and an eighth place finish in the park category. Cheng Bang-chung, is only one step behind, finishing fifth in the vert competition and 10th in the park category.

These two veterans should spur each other on, providing Taiwan's best medal hopes at the Asian X-Games.

Aside from three days of frantic competition, a number of extreme sport "all-stars" will be entertaining the crowd with live demonstrations.

The roster includes notables such as Matt Hoffman, a 30-year old pioneer of many BMX tricks performed on a vert ramp -- and the founder of the eponymous Matt Hoffman Bikes, manufactured in Taiwan.

Kuala Lumpur will also include the Asian debut of the Moto-X competition with a three-day exhibition of souped-up and seat-less dirt bikes flying over mounds of shaped dirt.

Riders in the Moto-X demonstration are mostly mostly Californian. Bringing on the buzz will be Jake Windham, Doug Parsons and Jeremy Carter.

The first Asian X-Games competition was held in Phuket, Thailand, in 1998, and were held there until last year, when Kuala Lumpur agreed to sponsor the event with a new extreme sports park.
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