Getting through customs and immigration in Kuala Lumpur proved more difficult than expected. It wasn't my boozy swagger and face full of stubble that got me stopped at the airport, but silly antics on behalf of a "fellow Taiwanese."
A squat man with wavy hair held up my queue with what turned out to be some daring political stunt: he single-handedly changed the name of his country on his passport from "Republic of China" to "Republic of Taiwan."
PHOTO: SEAN SCANLON
Fed up with the five-minute delay, I crossed the red line to see what was the matter, and if my translation services could be of use.
I stifled a chuckle as I saw his defiled passport, especially the upper right-hand corner where he had taken the liberty to cross out the word "China," and added the word "Taiwan" underneath -- in hand-lettered blue ballpoint.
I then had to accompany the perpetrator of this passport crime and the befuddled immigration agent into a back room where the dispute was eventually settled by a supervisor.
Safely in Malaysia, the Tai-wanese man apologized for my inconvenience and added what he thought was the real problem: the immigration official wanted money!
Later I met up with someone who had definitely paid his dues in the BMX competition: Matt Hoffman. He has more X-Game gold than anyone else, and has virtually pioneered this young sport.
Still competing in X-Game competitions while performing his other duties of running Matt Hoffman Bikes, doing demos, and running his own promotion company. His promo company sponsors ten or so events a year, loosely under the Crazy Freaking Biker Series banner, or CFB for short.
When asked about his too many gold medals, and possibly retiring from the sport to pursue other ventures, Hoffman says it's a possibility, but, "I don't know what I would do if I didn't ride."
Besides being a top rider, Hoffman nearly invented the bike in 1991 when he bought machining equipment and began to hand-manufacture 500 or so bikes a year. After making a trip to Taiwan, he marveled at local companies' technology because they have smaller margins of error -- and decided to switch his production to Taiwan.
"Before, this sport was so neglected and out of the mainstream that I had to make my own bikes. I bought some tooling machines to fashion a frame and threw in the parts for people to put together themselves," he said.
Now, he makes around 20,000 bikes a year in Taiwan, and he's been quite happy with quality standards.
If that weren't enough to keep him busy, Hoffman also just published his autobiography, The Ride of My Life.
Such duties keep Hoffman out of the judging box, but it doesn't keep him too far outside as the five judges -- all Americans -- are employed by Hoffman's promotion company, and manage all other BMX affairs at the Asian X Games, from scoring to course design and even scheduling.
Another veteran of the X Games is Sasha Steinhorst, who is also a member of the World Cup of Skateboarding: one of two bodies that govern skateboarding.
Steinhorst was surprised that none of the Chinese-Taipei competitors qualified for the skateboarding finals.
Two of Chinese-Taipei's top hopefuls, Hung Yao-Te (黃耀德) and Huang Po-Hsin (Jacky, 黃博鑫) took 15th and 17th places, respectively, in an earlier qualifier. Not a bad performance considering the field had 31 participants. Unfortunately, only the top ten could advance. Four of the ten came from Australia, two from China, two from Thailand, and two from Malaysia.
Two Asians who don't need to get any better are Eito Yasutoko and his older brother, Takeshi Yasutoko. They're not only rollerblading's numbers one and two in Asia, respectively, but also in the world -- and they've kept these positions for the past four years.
Asked why they are so good, the older Takeshi responds that he has been rollerblading since he was two years old, and his brother started learning at the age of three.
The Yasutoko brothers benefited from a father who owns a skate park. And, barring any sort of injury, they are virtually unbeatable with big airs and crazy tricks.
The only thing holding back the elder, 19-year-old Takeshi, is his younger brother, who was ranked higher than he in yesterday's preliminary rounds.
Takeshi's rollerblading career has proven so lucrative that he has no plans of attending college.
Chinese-Taipei failed to qualify in the rollerblading division, though Hang Yi-Chang did make an effort to arrive in Kuala Lumpur and took 12th place out of 14 competitors.
Like the man who held up the immigration line at the airport, even last-place finishers like Hang and the rest of the Chinese-Taipei delegation were happy to simply be in Kuala Lumpur.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
DOUBLES PAYBACK: Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Martens avenged their defeat in the quarters at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open against Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium dispatched Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani 6-1, 6-4 to set up a clash against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez for a spot in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament. Hsieh and Martens made a blistering start to their rematch after they lost to Schuurs and Stefani in the quarter-finals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open last month, winning three games without reply at the start of the first set