Taiwan pulled off another major upset victory when they defeated four-time Asian silver medalists South Korea in the women's event at the World Volleyball Championships yesterday.
The Taiwanese women beat the Asian Games silver medalists 26-24, 16-25, 29-27, 24-26, 15-10.
It was their third straight win after racking up their first-ever victory against former world champions Japan and defeating African champions Kenya.
PHOTO: AFP
They squandered match points leading 24-22 in the fourth set, but jumped ahead to 5-2 in the fifth set and never looked back to finish the match in one hour 55 minutes.
With their win, Taiwan move closer to the second stage, leading the six-team Pool A round robin with a 3-0 record, while South Korea are on 1-2.
"The Korean players are really strong and they played very well to make it difficult for us, but we played our very best to win," Taiwan captain Chen Shu-li said.
"We won it because we planned our strategy very carefully against the Korean team's quick play," Chen added.
Coach Lin Kuang-hung said: "I'm very happy to win such a tough game and proud of the team for playing patiently. We worked hard. That's why we won these three games."
South Korea coach Kim Myeong-soo said the team needed to regain their concentration following the defeat.
"I feel very sad to lose this game. My players lacked concentration. We will have a meeting before the following two matches to regain it," Kim said.
Favorites Brazil were also stretched before beating the Netherlands 25-18, 23-25, 23-25, 25-18, 15-9 in Group C in Kobe.
Serbia and Montenegro, who defeated defending champions Italy and three-time former world champions Cuba, needed just less than two hours to beat Peru 23-25, 21-25, 25-20, 25-16, 25-23 in Group D in Nagoya.
In Group B in Sapporo, Azerbaijan defeated Dominican Republic 21-25, 25-21, 25-21, 25-14.
Brazil and Serbia and Montenegro stood with a 3-0 record, South Korea, Azerbaijan, the Netherlands and Peru with 1-2, and Dominican Republic 0-3.
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