The nation's men's and women's archery teams had a good day yesterday, with the men taking a silver medal and the women bronze. The men's team lost to South Korea in the finals after beating Kazakhstan and India, while the women defeated North Korea for bronze after being knocked out of gold medal contention in the semi-finals by South Korea.
The softball team had another tight match with North Korea yesterday, surviving a late seventh-inning rally by the opposition to win 2-1. Taiwanese batters had eight hits but had managed only two runs and committed two errors. Taiwanese starter Lin Shu-hua fell just one out shy of a complete game when she needed help from Wu Chia-yen to get the final out. With the win Taiwan raises its record to 3-2 and earns the right to play a finals match against China tomorrow, the winner of which will play Japan in the grand final.
Meanwhile, Hsieh Cheng-kang defeated Malaysia's Puvaneswaran Ramasamy late on Tuesday to win Taiwan's ninth gold medal in the men's 55kg kumite karate division. Hsieh made short work of his first three opponents, beating competitors from Syria, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan 3-1, 5-1 and 5-1. In the finals, Hsieh took a conservative approach, waiting for his opponent to strike and then counter attacking. The match remained scoreless until there were just over two minutes remaining, when Hsieh took a 1-0 lead with a punch to Ramasamy's torso, then landed two more to extend his lead to 3-0. Then with just seconds left on the clock, Ramasamy landed a head punch to narrow the score to 3-2, but that was all he would get as Hsieh was able to hold him off until the end of the match.
PHOTO: AFP
The women's volleyball team also had a good day, beating Thailand in just three sets to take home the bronze medal. The match started close, with Taiwan winning the first set by just two points 25-23 and the second 25-21. But the Thai team didn't have much fight left by the third set, giving Taiwan an easy 25-14 victory. The win marked the conclusion of an up and down tournament for Taiwan, which finishes with a 3-3 record. It was also the first women's volleyball medal ever for Taiwan at the Asian Games.
PHOTO: AP
Hong Kong-based cricket team Hung See this weekend found success in their matches in Taiwan, even if none of the results went their way. Hung See played the Chairman’s XI on Saturday morning, the Daredevils that afternoon and PCCT yesterday, with all three home teams winning. The team for Chinese players at the Happy Valley-based Craigengower Cricket Club sends teams on tour to “spread the game of cricket.” This weekend was Hung See’s second trip to Taiwan after visiting Tainan in 2016. “The club has been traveling to all parts of the world since 1982 and the annual tradition continues [with the Taiwan
The San Francisco Giants signed 18-year-old Taiwanese pitcher Yang Nien-hsi (陽念希) to a contract worth a total of US$500,000 (NT $16.39 million). At a press event in Taipei on Wednesday, Jan. 22, the Giants’ Pacific Rim Area scout Evan Hsueh (薛奕煌) presented Yang with a Giants jersey to celebrate the signing. The deal consisted of a contract worth US$450,000 plus a US$50,000 scholarship bonus. Yang, who stands at 188 centimeters tall and weighs 85 kilograms, is of Indigenous Amis descent. With his fastest pitch clocking in at 150 kilometers per hour, Yang had been on Hsueh’s radar since playing in the HuaNan Cup
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while Coco Gauff’s dreams of a first women’s singles title in Melbourne were crushed in the quarter-finals by Paula Badosa. World No. 2 Alexander Zverev was ruffled by a stray feather in his men’s singles quarter-final, but he refocused to beat 12th seed Tommy Paul and reach the semi-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia defeated Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania and Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 in 2 hours, 20 minutes to advance the semi-finals. Hsieh and Ostapenko converted eight of 14 break
HARD TO SAY GOODBYE: After Coco Gauff dispatched Belinda Bencic in the fourth round, she wrote ‘RIP TikTok USA’ and drew a broken heart on a television camera lens Defending champion Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while compatriot Chan Hao-ching on Saturday dominated her opponents in the second round, as world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka swept into the quarter-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia toppled Hungary’s Timea Babos and Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US 6-4, 6-3, hitting 24 winners and converting three of seven break points in 1 hour, 18 minutes at 1573 Arena. Although rivals at last year’s Australian Open — where Hsieh and Belgium’s Elise Mertens beat Ostapenko and Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok 6-1, 7-5
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