UNIVERSIADE
Free beer for ceremonies
Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corp is to offer 250 boxes of commemorative Taiwan Beer for free at the Summer Universiade’s opening and closing ceremony receptions in Taipei. The various types of Universiade beer, launched by TTL in cooperation with designer Peng Hsing-kai, are to be offered to guests on Aug. 19 and Aug. 30, the opening and closing days of the Universiade. The beer is to go on sale to the general public next month. Taipei Universiade Organizing Committee official Huang Lo-ning said the purpose of the receptions is to showcase the nation’s specialty beverages while letting people feel the atmosphere of the sporting event, and Taiwan Beer is the best choice for that. People can drink the beer to show support for Taiwan at the Games, TTL Division of Marketing and Sales Jiang Hong-gui said. The colors of the commemorative beer are the five colors of the Universiade’s logo, which stands for athletes’ perseverance in training, their performance in competitions, and their achievements.
RUGBY UNION
Tonga qualify for Cup
Tonga were yesterday gifted a spot at the 2019 Rugby World Cup when Samoa slumped to a 38-16 loss against a rampant Fiji in the Pacific Nations Cup. With the combined results of last year’s and this year’s Pacific tournaments doubling as World Cup qualifiers, Samoa needed to at least draw with unbeaten Fiji to overhaul Tonga and reach the tournament in Japan. They led 16-14 at halftime in Apia, but had no answers as Fiji overran them in the second half. Fiji, who secured qualification last week when they defeated Tonga 14-10, scored five tries, including a hat-trick to scrumhalf Henry Seniloli. The result put Tonga in Pool C, the so-called “pool of death,” at the 2019 World Cup, alongside England, France, Argentina and the US. Samoa can still reach the World Cup through a repechage series.
FORMULA ONE
Bottas faces penalty
Valtteri Bottas, who was fastest in both of Friday’s opening practice sessions, was to be handed a five-place grid penalty for today’s British Grand Prix after an unscheduled gearbox change. The Finn, who won in Austria last week after Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton received a five-place penalty for the same offense, was left unable to claim pole position regardless of qualifying results yesterday. A team spokesperson confirmed the likely sanction late on Friday after a dominant Bottas had excelled during practice at Silverstone.
GOLF
Trump, rain visit in US
Major championship golf can be a long, difficult grind and on Friday at Trump National the fates aligned against many players. A two-hour thunderstorm delay on Thursday forced 39 players to return early on Friday to finish their opening round at the US Women’s Open before beginning the second. An advisory to players from the US Golf Association to leave early for the course because of possible extra security for the expected arrival of US President Donald Trump made for even earlier wake-up calls. To top it off, there was rain throughout the day. On the course, Feng Shanshan increased her lead as Trump watched from an enclosed glass box next to the 14th green. Feng shot a two-under 70 and had a 36-hole total of eight-under 136. Amy Yang of South Korea was in second, two shots back after a 71. All four Taiwanese were projected to miss the cut, with Hsu Wei-ling on 148 overall, Candie Kung on 149, and Tsai Pei-ying and Chien Pei-yun on 156.
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
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
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier