Li Ching-yi was the only medalist for Team Taiwan yesterday after winning the nation’s second silver medal in two days in the World Games jujitsu competition.
Up against the experienced Annabelle Reydy of France in the 55kg fighting final, Li started slowly and was 5-0 down within a few seconds as Reyde connected with a series of attacking punches.
Li never recovered and — despite encouragement from the sizable crowd — was overwhelmed as Reydy had her pinned down twice for ippons, finishing the three-minute bout with a disappointing 16-3 defeat.
PHOTO: CHANG CHUNG-I, TAIPEI TIMES
Aizhan Kukuzova of Kazakhstan, who Li had beaten in the semi-final, claimed bronze after Poland’s Martyna Bieronska was disqualified for persistently backing off, despite leading 20-11 at the time.
Earlier in the day, Taiwan’s Wu Chia-luan missed out on a bronze medal chance after losing in the men’s 77kg repechage semi-final to Percy Kunsa of France. Kunsa later went on to take the bronze.
The silver took Taiwan’s overall medal count to five gold, six silver and three bronze.
The concluding day of the artistic roller sports competition at the I-Shou University Gymnasium saw Taiwan miss out on numerous medal opportunities, with Wang Hsiao-chu finishing just out of the medals in the women’s freeskating long program. Wang was fourth, with Italy’s Tanja Romano taking gold. Yeh Chia-chen also failed in his medal quest, coming seventh out of eight in the men’s event.
Team dance freedance couple Lu Yi-an and Yang Jia-shiang, meanwhile, also missed out on a medal after finishing sixth out of six.
Pairs long program duo Chien Chia-sheng and Wang Szu-yu also took the wooden spoon in their final, scoring just 284.3 compared with the gold medal score of 390.1 by Italy’s Matteo Guarise and Sara Venerucci.
On the first day of billiards at the Martial Arts Stadium, Taiwan’s Lin Shu-hung advanced to the last eight of men’s snooker after beating South Africa’s Francois Ellis 3-0, while in carom, Yuan Yung-kuo triumphed in his round of 16 match against Egypt’s Sameh Sidom.
The final action of the night saw local favorite Chang Shu-han also go through to the round of eight after beating Japan’s Oi Yukiko nine games to five in the women’s nine-ball pool.
Also yesterday, the final day of boules sports saw Tsao Chia-hui finish in fourth place in the final of the Lyonnaise precision throw, while in the Petanque, Chen Hung-wen and Sun Chaia-yi lost 13-2 to the Thai pairing, missing out on a bronze.
In the Lyonnaise shuttle throw, Taiwan’s Huang Yu-ju also missed out on a bronze after losing to Italy’s Chiara Soligon.
Meanwhile, in the ten pin bowling women’s singles, local hope Wang Yu-ling was knocked out in the final qualifying stage after finishing in seventh position, scoring 2,042, some 87 points short of a semi-final spot.
At Lotus Pond on the first day of waterskiing at Lotus Pond, Taiwan’s Liao Chun-yi finished last in the women’s barefoot slalom preliminary. Also last were Lin Hao-ting and Kan Chun-yu, who failed to make the grade in their respective wakeboard qualifiers.
In related news, the 2013 World Games will be held in Cali, Colombia, the head of the International World Games Association (IWGA) announced on Tuesday.
“The Executive Committee of the IWGA has decided to grant the hosting of the 9th World Games to Cali, a city with 2 million people in south Colombia,” IWGA president Ron Froehlich told a news conference in Kaohsiung.
Froehlich said they had picked Cali because the city has a lot of experience in organizing sports events and has the necessary infrastructure and sports venues.
Pascual Guerrero, a representative from the Colombian Olympic Committee, said it would be the first time the World Games will be held in South America.
“The 2013 World Games will run under the slogan ‘The World Games for a Clean Planet.’ We will pay special attention to environmental friendliness. We want ‘fair play’ to the environment,” he said at the news conference.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY DPA
Also See: Athletes not the only stars at World Games
FRUSTRATION: Alcaraz made several unforced errors over four sets against Bosnian Damir Dzumhur, who had never made it past the third round in a major competition Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz reached the fourth round of the French Open after laboring past Damir Dzumhur 6-1, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in the Friday night session. The second-seeded Spaniard had never before played Dzumhur, a 33-year-old Bosnian who had never been past the third round at any major tournament. “I suffered quite a lot today,” Alcaraz said. “The first two sets was under control, then he started to play more deeply and more aggressively. It was really difficult for me.” Dzumhur hurt his left knee in a fall in the second round, and had treatment on Friday on his right leg during the
‘DREAM’: The 5-0 victory was PSG’s first Champions League title, and the biggest final win by any team in the 70-year history of the top-flight European competition Paris Saint-Germain won the Champions League for the first time as Luis Enrique’s brilliant young side outclassed Inter on Saturday in the most one-sided final ever with teenager Desire Doue scoring twice in an astonishing 5-0 victory. Doue supplied the pass for Achraf Hakimi to give PSG an early lead and the 19-year-old went from provider to finisher as his deflected shot doubled the advantage in the 20th minute. Doue scored again just after the hour mark, ending any doubt about the outcome before Khvicha Kvaratskhelia ran away to get the fourth and substitute Senny Mayulu, another teenager, made it five. Inter were
The Greek basketball league finals between Panathinaikos and Olympiakos were suspended by the government on Monday following on-court scuffles involving rival security teams. The best-of-five series is at 1-1. The third game, scheduled for today, has been postponed. The owners of both clubs were summoned to meet with the country’s sports minister. They “will be asked to provide explicit guarantees that this situation will be brought to an end. If not, this year’s championship will be definitively canceled,” government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said. “There can be no tolerance for such pathological phenomena of violence and delinquency.” In online posts, the owners of Panathinaikos and
The Edmonton Oilers on Thursday defeated the Dallas Stars 6-3 to book their place in the Stanley Cup Finals, setting up a repeat of last year’s NHL showpiece against reigning champions the Florida Panthers. The Oilers, bidding to become the first Canadian team to win the NHL’s championship series since the 1993 Montreal Canadiens, head to Florida for Game 1 of the best-of-seven series set for Wednesday. Florida, who are to play in the NHL showpiece for the third straight season, won last year’s title 4-3 to extend Canada’s decades-long Stanley Cup drought. Connor McDavid led Edmonton back to the championship series on
RSS