TAEKWONDO
Taiwan bags four medals
Taiwanese on Wednesday won one gold, one silver and two bronze medals on the opening day of the Asian Taekwondo Championships in Beirut. In the men’s under-68kg event, Huang Yu-jen, the bronze medalists at the 2018 Asian Championships, snatched Taiwan’s first gold of the tournament. Su Po-ya won silver in the women’s under-53kg event, Chen Yu-chuang bagged bronze in the women’s under-57kg event and Ma Ting-hsia took bronze in the women’s under-73kg event. The 24th edition of the tournament was scheduled for last year, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It began on Wednesday and ends today. Before the tournament began, Taiwanese had already secured four berths at the Tokyo Olympics.
BASKETBALL
Clippers take series lead
Paul George on Wednesday had 37 points, 16 rebounds and five assists to lead the Los Angeles Clippers to a 119-111 victory over the Utah Jazz in Game 5 of their Western Conference semi-final series. George became the first player in franchise history to post at least 35 points, 15 rebounds and five assists in a playoff game. “It was no secret. I knew I had to be big tonight and gotta be big going forward,” George said. Marcus Morris scored 25 points and Reggie Jackson added 22 for the Clippers. Los Angeles won their third straight game to push the top-seeded Jazz to the brink of elimination. In Philadelphia, Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks pulled off a playoff comeback for the ages against the Philadelphia 76ers to move within a victory of the Eastern Conference finals. Young was fouled on a three-pointer and hit all three free throws with 1 minute, 26 seconds left to cap a 26-point comeback and send Atlanta on their way to a 109-106 victory in Game 5. Young scored 39 points and added to a post-season where he has become a breakout star. Joel Embiid scored 17 points in the first quarter and had the Sixers on their way toward a romp with a 26-point lead in the first half. They still led 87-69 at the end of the third before they collapsed. Embiid finished with 39 points, and Seth Curry had 36.
ICE HOCKEY
Canadiens level series
The Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday bounced back from defeat in Game 1 to beat the Vegas Golden Knights 3-2 and level their Stanley Cup best-of-seven semi-final series. Joel Armia, Tyler Toffoli and Paul Byron got the goals for the Canadiens, with Carey Price frustrating the Golden Knights with 29 saves. Alex Pietrangelo bagged both goals for the Golden Knights. The Canadiens took control of the contest in the first period, with Armia opening the scoring after a deflected shot from Joel Edmundson. Toffoli then doubled the Montreal lead in the 17th minute of the first period before Byron put the visitors 3-0 ahead in the second period. Pietrangelo pulled one back for the Canadians 18 minutes, 46 seconds onto the second period before setting up a nervous finale with his second late in the third period. “We showed some good composure,” Montreal coach Dominique Ducharme said. “At one point we felt the pressure, they were trying to come back. Overall, we showed pretty good composure. I think we can still do a better job.”
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