The highly anticipated 2011 Four Continents Figure Skating Championships will commence at the Taipei Arena tomorrow afternoon with nearly 100 world-class contestants from 16 countries taking part in the four-day event that is expect to wow and will be beamed live to a number of countries around the world.
This year’s competition showcases four of the reigning world champions in ice skating’s various disciplines, headed by Mao Asada of Japan, who won the women’s gold at the 2008 and last year’s World Figure Skating Championships.
Also from Japan — Asia’s powerhouse in ice skating — is media darling Daisuke Takahashi, who took home the top honor in the men’s competition at last year’s World Figure Skating Championship in Turin, Italy, to add to his already impressive list of accomplishments.
Photo: AFP
In the ice dancing, Canadian pair Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir are the favorites to win the gold following their triumph at last year’s Winter Olympics in Vancouver, as they look to continue their dominance in the event.
Rounding out the foursome of world champs are Chinese pair skating sensations Pang Qing and Tong Jian, who won gold at the World Championships in 2006 and last year and are looking to land their fifth Four Continents Championship to close out an illustrious career that began more than a decade ago.
“We are very excited to be here in Taipei for one of our last competitions,” Tong said at a press conference held in Taipei yesterday afternoon.
The couple is expected to retire from official competition later this year to start a family.
“[The wedding] will definitely take place,” Tong said when asked by reporters about beginning a lifelong partnership with his skating partner.
Representing Taiwan in this year’s event will be a pack of six outstanding skaters, led by Melinda Wang, who placed 23rd in the 2008 World Figure Skating Championships.
Meanwhile, in related figure skating news, China is facing new questions about the ages of some of its athletes after discrepancies were found in the birthdates of eight skaters.
According to a list of birthdates published on the Chinese Skating Association’s Web site and found by The Associated Press, the skaters violated the sport’s age limits by competing when they were either too young or too old.
The birthdates on the federation’s Web sites differ from those listed on the athletes’ International Skating Union biographies.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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