Taking three of the four individual honors in the skill-related competitions, Bank of Taiwan walked away as the biggest winners on the first day of the Super Basketball League’s (SBL) annual All-Star weekend at the National Taiwan University of Physical Education and Sport in Taichung last night.
Leading the way with a top-place finish in the skills challenge was point guard Chien Ming-fu, who added another chapter to his storied return from a three-year absence from the sport by fending off six challengers to take home the first of three prizes for Bank of Taiwan players.
Dark horse Wang Nan-kwei made sure Chien would not be the lone Banker to taste success moments later in the highly competitive three-point shootout that featured the defending champion Doug Creighton of Pure Youth Construction and last year’s runner-up Lu Cheng-rue of the Yulon Luxgens.
Creighton never made it past the first round in this year’s competition, only managing to score nine points on the day.
Meanwhile, Lu claimed 17 points in the first round, behind Wang’s 21 to reach the final.
Wang then proceeded to showcase his jaw-dropping accuracy by netting a record-breaking 23 points to earn the leading long-range bomber distinction.
Last but not least for the Bankers’ was hired gun Joseph Taylor who excelled in the highly anticipated slam dunk contest by leaping over five teammates on a thunderous slam to earn a perfect 50 point mark that made him the champ.
The WSBL three-point shootout was won by Cathay Life’s Wu Yi-ting, while the mixed shooting contest was claimed by Kinmen Liquor’s Luo Tien-jin and Chu Yi-tsong along with female Taipower shooter Wei Yu-chuan.
Rising Star Team A topped Team B by an 83-74 margin to cap the first day of the two-day event.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
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