Singapore took a step closer to promotion to the top division at the Sudirman Cup World Team Championships yesterday with a vital 3-2 win over Taiwan in Division 2.
Hendri Kurnian Saputra and Yuija Li had given Singapore the perfect start with a 21-10, 21-15 win over Tsai Chia-hsin and Cheng Shao-chieh in the mixed doubles and Ronald Susilo added the men's singles with a 21-14, 21-18 win over Hsieh Yu-hsing.
Taiwan hit back to claim a victory in the women's singles that raised hopes of a recovery.
PHOTO: AFP
Cheng courageously came back from dropping the first game to beat the former Commonwealth Games Champion Li Li 15-21, 21-11, 21-16 and keep her team's hopes alive.
But the match came to an end when Saputra and Hendra Wijaya overcame Lee Sheng-mu and Fang Chieh-min 21-8, 22-20 in the men's doubles.
Singapore is the only team in Division 2 Group A with two wins out of two and compete the round-robin stage with a tie against Germany today.
Germany, who lost to Taiwan in the first round, beat a disappointing Swedish team, who were relegated from Division 1 in Beijing two years ago, 4-1.
If Singapore top the group, they will face the winners of Division 2 Group B for the right to play-off for promotion to the top flight of eight. Japan and Poland are currently the top two teams in Group B.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB