Taiwan Sports Wrap

Women fight for Olympics

The semi-finals of the International Basketball Federation's 22nd FIBA Asia Championship for women take place in Incheon, South Korea, this afternoon.

Taiwan will face off against South Korea, while Japan meets China, with the winners competing tomorrow for both the championship and the only Asian spot in the Beijing 2008 Olympics.

If the Taiwanese can manage to beat the strong South Korean team, they will stand a good chance of pulling off the impossible and securing a ticket to the Beijing Olympics.

Losing means that the only chance for Olympic participation will be a place among the top five in the 12-team five-continent qualifying tournament next year, a competition that will include both European and US teams.

Previous performances have shown that Taiwan will be hard put to beat the home team -- Taiwan has only managed a single victory in 22 previous championship matches against South Korea.

Nevertheless, Taiwan's coach and players are upbeat about their prospects, partly because their best performance in the preliminary rounds came against the South Koreans.

The key to success will be to let Chiang Feng-chun (姜鳳君) neutralize South Korea center Jung Sun-min while Liu Chun-yi (劉君儀) controls forward Park Jung-eun, Taiwan coach Hung Ling-yao (洪玲瑤) said.

Taiwan plays South Korea at 3pm Taiwan time, while Japan and China play at 5pm.