Taiwanese adventurers have made history on both land and sea this month by sailing solo across the Pacific Ocean and scaling the highest mountain in South America.
Word reached Taiwan on Monday that climbers Wu Yu-lung (
The climb was not without drama, as Hsieh had to make the summit alone after his partner, Yang Shih-ping (
The expedition was part of the group's ongoing attempt to climb the tallest peak in each of the seven continents. Next on the list is North America's Mount McKinley in the US state of Alaska, which the mountaineers plan to climb in May. The grand finale, Mount Everest, is scheduled for next year.
Meanwhile, TVBS reported yesterday that one of its former reporters, Kao Chih-liang (高智亮), had arrived at Orchid Island yesterday after sailing solo across the Pacific Ocean from the US. Kao's journey began four months ago in San Diego, after he traveled to California with just NT$1 million to buy a boat and sail it back to Taiwan. Although he had hoped to arrive in Kaohsiung before the Lunar New Year, but was delayed by terrible weather and 4m to 5m swells.
Friends and family noted Kao's weatherbeaten features and said that he was considerably thinner than when he left. But Kao shook off the difficulties he had endured on his four-month odyssey, saying that the journey had made for an interesting and exciting life experience.
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