As teams in the Super Basketball League (SBL) take a two-week break, Chien Yi-fei (
The Sina Lions and BCC Mars, on the other hand, have decided to use the time to recover from nagging injuries.
Dacin Tigers Coach Liu Chiia-fa (劉佳發) has also mandated a daily conditioning program for his players.
Taiwan Beer Coach Fu Ming-ren (
The Jeoutai Elephants have learned that their three 5km runs per week might have been the difference in their two key victories over the Tigers, and will continue to run over the holiday, while Bank of Taiwan will hit the weight room in an effort to add some strength to their game.
But the top teams have won with defense, not pushups.
While the Dinos have kept opponents to under 72 points per game in their 11-0 streak, the Sina Lions have won seven straight with their league-leading pressure defense that has held the opposition to less than 70 points per match and forced nearly 10 turnovers per contest.
Having dropped over three points (from 74.7 to 71.4 points per game) in total team defense since early December, the Dinos have found success by blanketing key offensive threats.
Since losing their first three to open the season at 0-3, the Lions have used a tenacious "D" to help build a reputation as the toughest team to score against. Second only to the Dinos, the Lions have outscored their opponents by an average margin of six points.
Realizing their weakness in overall team speed, the Lions should be lauded for their ability to get back on defense, control the tempo of the game, and not run into a shooting match against younger opponents.
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