WOODBALL
Friendship tourney planned
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is organizing a game of woodball later this month that will be attended by foreign diplomats, in an effort to promote the Taiwanese-invented game, derived from golf and croquet. The Diplomatic Woodball Friendship Tournament, scheduled for Oct. 31 in Taipei, is aimed at facilitating sports exchanges and promoting the sport, Department of NGO International Affairs Deputy Director-General Shen Wen-chiang said at a news briefing. “We’ve invited foreign diplomats based in Taiwan, members of international chambers of commerce, local politicians and woodball players,” Shen said. The sport, which requires players to hit balls through narrow gates with wooden mallets, was invented by Weng Ming-hui in 1990 when he attempted to reinvent the game of golf in his garden.
SOCCER
Eritrea players seek asylum
Ten players from the Eritrea are seeking asylum in Botswana, the latest in a series of defections by athletes from a nation under investigation by the UN for human-rights violations. The Eritrea national team was in Botswana to play a FIFA 2018 World Cup qualifyier. The players on Wednesday refused to board their plane home and were detained by police. Similar mass defections occurred in Kenya in 2009, Tanzania in 2011 and Uganda in 2012. They were fleeing a nation where slavery-like practices are routine and torture widespread.
SOCCER
Five arrested for fixing
Nepalese police arrested five former and current national team players, including the captain, on Wednesday on charges of match fixing, in another blow to the nation’s embattled soccer association. Captain Sagar Thapa, Sandip Rai, Ritesh Thapa, Bikash Singh Chhetri and Anjan K.C. were arrested on charges of alleged match fixing from 2008, S.S.P. Sarbendra Khanal of the Metropolitan Police Crime Division said. “From preliminary examinations of the players’ accounts, we found connections to known match-fixers in Malaysia and Singapore,” Khanal said. “It seems that these players were involved in a deep network of brokers and fixers in other countries.”
BOXING
Lee Selby retains crown
Welsh fighter Lee Selby retained his International Boxing Federation featherweight crown in Phoenix, Arizona, on Wednesday with a unanimous decision over former three-division champion Fernando Montiel in a 12-round fight. Selby, who improved to 22-1 with eight knockouts, won on all three judges’ scorecards — 119-109, 118-110 and 116-112 — at the Gila River Arena. Montiel, who dropped to 54-4-2 with 39 knockouts, cut Selby over the right eye in the sixth round, but the bigger Selby was able to outbox and outsmart Mexico’s Montiel throughout much of the fight.
TENNIS
Bouchard files lawsuit
Eugenie Bouchard filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against the US Tennis Association that alleges the sport’s national governing body was negligent, leaving her to slip and fall in a locker room during the US Open. Bouchard has suffered severe pain and economic loss after the Sept. 4 incident, she said in the federal lawsuit filed in the US District Court in Brooklyn that seeks unspecified monetary damages. The 21-year-old had just played in a mixed doubles match when she returned to the locker room shortly after 10pm. Minutes later, she slipped and fell on the tile floor, slamming her head against the ground.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
Marcus Rashford’s first goals for Aston Villa on Sunday inspired a 3-0 win against Preston North End that sent his side into the FA Cup semi-finals for the first time in 10 years. Rashford struck twice in the second half at Deepdale to end Preston’s stubborn resistance before Jacob Ramsey wrapped up Villa’s long-awaited return to the last four. Villa are to face Crystal Palace — 3-0 winners at Fulham on Saturday — in the semi-finals at Wembley Stadium in London. Revitalized since joining Villa on loan from Manchester United during the January transfer window, Rashford is beginning to show the form that
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