BASEBALL
Wang in rehab game
Taiwanese right-hander Wang Chien-ming is scheduled to start his next rehab game for the Triple-A Syracuse Chiefs today, the Chiefs announced on Sunday, a game that could finally land him back in the Major Leagues. Wang is hoping to secure a roster spot with the Washington Nationals after having been sidelined for the past two years following surgery on his right shoulder in July 2009. His outing against the Buffalo Bisons will be his fifth minor league rehabilitation game and represents the highest level of competition he has faced to date. His first official rehab game was on June 27 with the Class-A Hagerstown Suns, which beat the Lakewood BlueClaws 5-2. He then threw four scoreless innings for the Class A-Advanced Potomac Nationals on July 2 and another 11 scoreless innings in two outings for the Double-A Harrisburg Senators. Wang is currently 2-0 with a 1.00 ERA in the minor leagues, according to the Chiefs’ Web site. If Wang performs well in his Triple-A outing, he could return to the big leagues by the end of this month at the earliest.
TCHOUKBALL
Taiwan bags three titles
Taiwan bagged several Tchoukball World Youth Championship titles in Traiskirchen, Austria, on Sunday, taking first place in the 12-year-old boys, 18-year-old boys and 18-year-old girls categories. Tchoukball, an indoor game involving a trampoline-like net, was developed by Swiss biologist Hermann Brandt in the 1970s with the aim of devising a game that would result in few injuries. The biennial tournament saw the inclusion of 24 national teams comprising 263 players from nine countries. In the final round of the 18-year-old girls category, a team from Datung High School in Pingtung County beat Italy to claim the first spot. San Min High School from New Taipei City defeated Italy to claim the 18-year-old boys title, while Fengtien Elementary School from Pingtung County overpowered the United Arab Enirates team to seize the 12-year-old boys’ title. Taiwan is the world’s top--ranking tchoukball country after five teams won the top titles at the Asia-Pacific Tchoukball Championship held in Singapore last year.
POOL
Ko claims Guinness title
Taiwan’s Ko Pin-yi defeated Shane Van Boening of the US 10-4, to claim the Guinness World Series of Pool Championship title in Jakarta on Sunday. The win was Ko’s second title in three years, his last victory coming at the 2009 Philippine Open Pool Championship WPA World Tour 10-Ball Challenge. Ko pocketed US$41,000 for winning the championship, the single largest pay day of his career. In the final against Van Boening, Ko quickly fell behind by two racks, but recovered to tie the match after four frames. He pulled away after that. He was also helped by van Boening’s failure to pocket any balls on his last three breaks in the match.
ICE HOCKEY
Sakic hits hole-in-one
Former NHL All-Star Joe Sakic made a US$1 million hole-in-one during a celebrity golf tournament on Sunday. Canadian Sakic aced the par-three 17th hole at the American Century Celebrity Golf Championship. The two-time Stanley Cup winner will keep US$500,000, with the other half going to former cyclist Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong Foundation. “Burnaby Joe” used an eight iron on the 162nd waterfront hole for his first hole-in-one in his golfing career. Sakic played 20 seasons in the NHL and won a gold medal with Canada at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.
BRIEFS
Wallabies mourn Appleby
Wallaby James O’Connor has paid tribute to his former school mate Halley Appleby, who died yesterday as a result of injuries sustained in a club match in Australia at the weekend. Forward Appleby lost consciousness when he suffered brain and spinal injuries in a tackle in Saturday’s match between the University of Queensland and GPS in Brisbane. His family turned off the 21-year-old’s life support yesterday morning after he had been declared brain dead, local media reported. “It’s devastating, to say the least,” O’Connor told reporters. “I grew up with Halley and lived three doors down from him in the dorms at Nudgee College. It’s a massive shock. He was a really bubbly guy, always the life of the party. He was always the one up to mischief in the dorms. Everyone loved being around him.” Wallabies lock James Horwill, a member of Appleby’s University of Queensland club, also extended his condolences over what he described as a “freak accident.” “You can get hit by a car crossing the road,” the Queensland Reds skipper said. “You don’t think about it when you are playing rugby, but obviously there’s a risk involved in anything you do.”
SOCCER
City agree to sell Tevez
Manchester City have agreed a deal to sell their Argentine star Carlos Tevez to Brazilian side Corinthians, the English Premier League club’s manager, Roberto Mancini, said yesterday. “At the moment we have an agreement with Corinthians, but Carlos now is still a City player,” Mancini told Sky TV. According to reports, the deal will be closed when personal terms between the 27-year-old and his new club are agreed. The Brazilian side had offered 40 million euros (US$64 million) for the striker, but City had been holding out for more for their captain and Corinthians have reportedly made an improved offer. The striker wants to leave Manchester as his daughters live in South America with their mother.
SOCCER
Lowly India stun Qatar
Lowly India, ranked No. 147 in the world, pulled off a 2-1 victory over 2022 World Cup hosts Qatar in a friendly at the Al Sadd Stadium on Sunday. Both teams were preparing for their World Cup Asian Zone qualifiers on July 23 when Qatar take on Vietnam in Doha and India travel to the United Arab Emirates. India put up a spirited display against the 94th-ranked Qatar, who took time to settle, despite being back home from a two-week training camp in France. India went ahead through a 16th-minute penalty from former Kansas City Wizards striker Sunil Chhetri. Striker Sushil Kumar Singh then made it 2-0 in the 72nd minute and it was only then that Qatar showed some sense of urgency. Though the home team hit back in the very next minute, it was too little, too late.
SWIMMING
D’Arcy to pay compensation
Australian swimmer Nick D’Arcy has been ordered to pay at least A$180,000 (US$192,000) in compensation to a fellow swimmer he assaulted in 2008 after a judge rejected his claim of self-defense. D’Arcy was booted off the Australian team for the 2008 Olympics for assaulting Simon Cowley and he received a 14-month suspended jail sentence in 2009 after pleading guilty to recklessly causing grievous bodily harm. The 23-year old swimmer, who last month beat Michael Phelps in the 200m butterfly in California, had argued that he acted in self-defense when he “lashed out” at Cowley with a “wild defensive swing” which caused multiple facial fractures.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with