CPBL officials announced the resumption of the Asia Series yesterday afternoon in a statement that should bring joy to baseball fans across Asia.
With Japan’s professional baseball league, Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), confirming its participation earlier this week in the upcoming 2011 Asia Series in Taiwan, the stage is finally set for the best of Asia to showcase their talent in a high-caliber international tournament.
The annual four-day competition of Asia’s top professional baseball teams, which was known as the Konami Cup and ran for four seasons from 2005 to 2008 prior to a two-year stoppage, will resume in Taiwan in November with Australia sending the defending champs of the Australian Baseball League (ABL), the Perth Heat, to replace the champs from China’s Chinese Baseball League (CBL) in a four-team face off.
With Japan recovering from the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the NPB was forced to postpone its season this year by nearly a month, which also meant delaying its Championship Series (Nippon Series) to mid-November, so the country had been unable to commit to participating in the Asia Series tentatively set for Nov. 11 to Nov. 14.
However, with all involved parties acknowledging the unusual situation in Japan and the country’s desire to take part in the event, the Asia Series is now set for Nov. 25 to Nov. 29, with the champs from South Korea’s Korean Baseball Organization joining the top finishers from Australia, Japan and Taiwan to fight for the bragging right of Asia’s best.
“We are all very excited to hear that it [the Asia Series] will resume after the two-year stoppage and are confident that we’ll be there to make Taiwan proud,” Chen Rei-chen, skipper of the Brother Elephants, the CPBL defending champs, told the Taipei Times.
Japan dominated the first four Asia Series tournaments, winning all four titles on their own turf, while Taiwan and South Korea each snatched up a pair of -second-place finishes.
Similar to previous years, this year’s competition will use a round-robin format in the first round, before the top two finishers battle for the title and NT$18 million (US$624,000) in prize money. The second-place finisher will take home NT$10 million, while the third and fourth-place finishers will each pick up NT$3 million for their participation.
Greek swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev was the only athlete to “beat” a world record on Sunday at the Enhanced Games, winning the men’s 50m freestyle at the divisive competition where athletes were free to take performance-enhancing substances. His time of 20.81 seconds — which is not considered official — came in the final event of the night in Las Vegas, sparing the blushes of organizers who made claims that multiple world records would be surpassed due to a sophisticated doping regime. Gkolomeev, who was wearing a synthetic “supersuit” long banned at events such as the Olympics, outpaced Australia’s Cameron McEvoy’s 20.88 set in
Fred Kerley is competing unaugmented against drug-fuelled athletes at this weekend’s Enhanced Games and still hopes to race in the 2028 Olympics, the suspended former 100m world champion said on Friday. Arguably the biggest name at the divisive event in Las Vegas, where doping is permitted, the US sprinter said he had chosen not to take any of the banned substances including testosterone and steroids that his competitors have been using. “I don’t need it. God gave me fast feet for a reason. And I’m here to showcase my talent,” Kerley said. Kerley last September became the first US competitor and first track
VICTORY ABROAD: The team took home a fistful of medals and secured spots for the autumn’s Asian Games, scheduled for September in Nagoya Taiwan’s women’s team captured the overall title at the Asian Taekwondo Championships in Mongolia on Sunday, finishing with two golds, one silver and one bronze medal. The strong showing, led by gold medalists Wang Chieh-ling and Chang Jui-en secured the full quota of available spots for Taiwan at the Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan, in September. Wang opened Taiwan’s medal run by winning gold in the women’s under-46kg class on Thursday, the first day of competition. Liu Yu-yun later earned a silver in the under-49kg class. On the final day on Sunday, Chang won Taiwan’s second gold medal in the under-62kg event, and
The manager of the Yomiuri Giants, one of Japan’s most popular baseball teams, resigned yesterday after he was arrested for allegedly physically attacking his teenage daughter. Shinnosuke Abe allegedly grabbed the 18-year-old and forced her to the floor at their home in central Tokyo on Monday evening, reported national broadcaster NHK and Kyodo News, citing unnamed police sources. “Leaving like this really means I’m causing you a lot of trouble, and I feel truly sorry about that,” Abe told a hastily arranged news conference, his eyes red with tears. The former star catcher, who is among baseball-obsessed Japan’s most recognized sports figures,
RSS