The brainchild of former Taiwan Touch player James Chang evolved to the next level in Taipei yesterday, while premier side the Taipei Hulks returned to their winning ways.
Last year saw the first Touch Threes tournament, pitting teams of just three players against each other. At the Bailing rugby fields in Shilin District this year, it was Fast Four, which allowed a bit more creative play.
The Hulks showed no mercy, taking the men’s and mixed divisions without dropping a game.
Photo: Grant Dexter, Taipei Times
Their mixed side romped through the preliminary rounds, notching 22 touchdowns and conceding only three. They faced Ya-Hui’s Heroes in the final and won 6-2.
The men’s team also faced little threat in any of their games, winning all of their games by five points.
They took out the Coconut Boyz 8-3 in the final.
The closest game of the day in the men’s draw saw Ya-Hui’s Heroes overcome a two-point deficit, scoring with the last play to take a 6-5 win over Galaxy Giesen.
It was a tough day out for all three Galaxy sides on display — Giesen won their opener against the Silver Sausages, but folded badly against the Hulks before the close loss put them out of contention.
In the mixed draw, Galaxy Simuolive picked up a win against fellow Galaxians, M&T Creative Marketing, but also suffered a last-gasp loss to Ya-Hui’s Heroes, going down 4-3.
The event was the last before Taipei Touch Association treasurer Trent Prestegar heads to China to take up a new job after nine years in Taiwan.
Outside of work, he said it was a great opportunity for him to advance his participation in the game — organizing events, and advancing his skills as a referee and player — as China’s national development squad is based in the city and Rachel Grantham, who works for the Asia Coaching Commission for world governing body Federation of International Touch, is just two hours away in Hong Kong.
“It’s been great in Taiwan learning the game,” Prestegar said, adding that he had never played before moving to Taipei three years ago. “There have been great opportunities, getting referee’s qualifications, and coaching and playing.”
Prestegar was sure it would not be long before he would be seeing the Taipei teams again.
“Everybody says: ‘Goodbye,’ but it’s more like: ‘See you later,’” he said, laying out the challenge that he might return with a team behind him, perhaps to challenge the “Hulk smash.”
Yu Yao-hsing on Tuesday nabbed Taiwan’s only goal in the final round of qualifiers for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, as they fell 3-1 to Sri Lanka at Taipei Municipal Stadium. Early goals from Sri Lanka in the first half left Taiwan struggling to get on the board, and Christopher Tiao’s own goal at 53 minutes sealed the team’s fate in the third round of qualifiers. While acknowledging that the defeat, Taiwan’s sixth in Group D, was disappointing, head coach Matt Ross said he saw reasons to stay positive about the team’s development. “There were lots of positive signs in terms of the
INDIGESTION: Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup for a third consecutive time after a 4-1 defeat to Bosnia on penalties in a loss Gattuso said was ‘difficult to digest’ Coach Graham Arnold on Tuesday challenged his players to “shock the world” after Iraq became the 48th and final team to qualify for the FIFA World Cup with a nerve-shredding 2-1 win over Bolivia in an intercontinental playoff in Mexico, as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Sweden and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) also secured their places at the finals. Iraq, whose preparations were disrupted by the war in the Middle East, sealed their first appearance at the finals in 40 years and are to play in Group I against France, Senegal and Norway. Goals from Ali al-Hamadi
“I don’t remember the moment, but ever since I was a kid, that’s the first thing I loved,” two-time NBA All-Star Isaiah Thomas said of his lifelong romance with basketball. However, that journey unfolded against the limitations of his size in a game where height often dictates opportunity — a reality he confronted throughout his career. At 175cm, Thomas is less than 2cm taller than the average Taiwanese adult male, while NBA players during his career stood at about 200cm on average. Compared with the NBA’s average career length of less than five years, Thomas’ 13-season career stands out as
Dakar and Rabat have longstanding ties, but relations have been strained since the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) final, which Senegal won in mid-January before being stripped of the title, which was transferred to Morocco. Now, the AFCON trophy is something of a thorn in the two countries’ sides. On Rue Mohamed V, the street where Moroccan vendors are based in the Senegalese capital, a police van is parked. “The police have been on high alert since the Confederation of African Football [CAF] decided to award the title to Morocco, but there have been no incidents,” a local resident said.
RSS