■ Olympics
Committee gets new chief
Tsai Chen-wei (蔡辰威), a veteran sports promoter, took over the helm of Taiwan's Olympic committee from Huang Ta-chou (黃大洲) yesterday. A ceremony was held at the National Council on Physical Fitness and Sports (NCPFS), with Wu Ching-kuo (吳經國), a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), NCPFS Minister Chen Chuan-shou (陳全壽), Chen's deputy Huang Chi-huang (黃啟煌), and leaders in the domestic sports sector in attendence. Tsai will begin by preparing for the 2006 Asian Games to be held in Doha, Qatar, Dec.1 to Dec. 15, and the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Tsai will also remain chairman of the ROC Sports Federation.
■ Bobsled
Pierre Lueders on a roll
Pierre Lueders of Canada won his second straight World Cup bobsled event in Koenigsee, Germany on Sunday, setting a track record in the four-man race. Lueders, who won the two-man race on this fast track, teamed with Ken Kotyk, Morgan Alexander and Lascelles Brown to finish in a combined time of 1 minute, 37.26 seconds. The Canadian quartet set the track record on the first run with a time of 48.42 seconds. Todd Hays of the US was fourth after the first run but finished second as his unit clocked 1:37.46. Rene Spies of Germany took third in 1:37.57. Martin Annen of Switzerland remained atop the World Cup standings.
■ Sumo
Asashoryu in the hunt
Grand champion Asashoryu overpowered Hakurozan in Tokyo yesterday to stay one win off the lead at the New Year Grand Sumo Tournament. Rank-and-filer Hokutoriki leads the 15-day tourney with a perfect 9-0 record. In the day's final bout at Ryogoku Kokugikan, Asashoryu held a firm grip on Hakurozan's belt and forced the fourth-ranked maegashira out to improve to 8-1. Hakurozan fell to 2-7. The Mongolian Asashoryu won all six tournaments last year and is gunning for a record eighth straight Emperor's Cup here.
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