Team Taiwan saw its Olympic hopes extinguished yesterday after it was walloped by Lebanon 95-64 at the FIBA Asian Championship in Tokushima, Japan, dropping its record to 0-2 for the round. Lebanon's victory, combined with Iran's later 95-87 victory over Qatar, secured the two a spot in the semi-finals today in which they will play each other for a shot at the championship and a trip to Beijing next year.
As for Taiwan, it will now take on Qatar for the chance to contend with the third-place finisher in group F for fifth place.
Despite a strong offensive performance from Chen Hsin-an, who scored 21 points and had one rebound, the rest of the team never found its offensive groove. The only other player to score double digits on the Taiwanese squad was Lin Chih-chieh, who had 15 with five rebounds.
On the defensive end, the team once again had no answer for Fadi El Khatib, who had dominated Taiwan during the Jones Cup in Taipei County last month. El Khatib scored 28 points and had six rebounds, while also getting strong support from center Joseph Vogel with 14 points.
But unlike the Jones Cup, there would be no a buzzer-beating three-point shots at the end of the fourth quarter to propel the match into overtime and eventual victory. Taiwan was outplayed from the first quarter, and found itself faced by an insurmountable 25-39 deficit at halftime.
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