Taiwan romps to 10th Straits Cup

Taiwan handily defeated China yesterday in the third round of the Straits Cup in Taoyuan County to cement its 10th consecutive victory in the golf tournament.

Twenty-four competitors from the two teams played 12 one-on-one matches, while Taiwan emerged victorious with seven wins, two ties and three losses on the day to give it a solid 14-10 overall win after three days of play.

Lu Wei-lan (呂偉嵐) was the only Taiwanese competitor to emerge from the tournament undefeated after he beat China's Shang Lei (尚磊). His brother Lu Wei-chih (呂偉智) had also entered the last round yesterday unscathed, but ended up falling to China's Wu Kangchun (吳康春).

There were also two ties between Chen Chih-ming (陳志明) and Wu Weihuang (吳偉煌), as well as Chen Tsung-cheng (陳宗成) and Xiao Zhijin (肖志金). Each team was awarded half a point for each match.

Liang Wenchong (粱文沖), the top-ranked golfer in China, ended the tournament on a sour note when he was upset by Taiwan's Chang Tse-peng (張澤鵬).

Liang started the match off well by winning three of the first five holes. But Chang steadied himself to take the fifth, and then won the ninth, 10th and 11th to take a one-hole lead.

After trading wins back and forth on the 13th to 15th holes, Chang sealed the victory by winning the 17th. The match ended early as Chang had a two-hole lead with just one hole remaining.

Taiwan's Tsai Chi-huang (蔡啟煌) won the most holes of any Taiwanese on the day, with his opponent Huang Yonghuan (黃永歡) making six bogies.

Huang's already had a four-hole lead after 11 holes, and the match ended early at the 14th hole when Huang bogied again and Tsai extended his lead to five with just four holes remaining.

Volleyball

The Asia Men's Volleyball Challenge opened in Chiayi City yesterday, but Team Taiwan was dealt an early blow when it was overmatched by South Korea for a 0-3 loss at 17-25, 19-25, 19-25. In the late game, Japan defeated China in four sets, 25-22, 13-25, 22-16, 25-23.

Activists demonstrated outside the tournament venue to protest the tournament organizers' decision to adopt Olympic standards, which prohibit any Taiwanese national flags inside the venue.

The tournament will run until Sunday and will finish with the much-anticipated match between Taiwan and China.

Track and field

On the second day of the Asian Track and Field Championships in Amman yesterday, Taiwanese shotputter Lin Chia-ying (林家瑩) took the bronze medal with a throw of 16.46m.

Lin also holds the national record of 16.76m. Taiwan's Huang Chih-feng (黃芝鳳) also took the bronze in the hammer throw on Thursday.