TABLE TENNIS
Taiwanese pair make final
Taiwan’s Cheng I-ching and Li Yu-jhun yesterday advanced to the final at the WTT Star Contender Bangkok, beating Japanese pair Miyuu Kihara and Miyu Nagasaki 3-2 (11-6, 10-12, 9-11, 11-6, 11-5). They face Chinese pair Chen Xingtong and Kuai Man in the final at the Huamark Indoor Stadium. Cheng and Li, the world No. 6 women’s pair, have achieved outstanding results this year, winning at the Amman Challenge in February and taking second at the Goa Star Challenge last month.
Photo: Taipei Times, courtesy of the WTT
BASKETBALL
Wang Nan-kuei dies
Retired Taiwanese basketball player Wang Nan-kuei died in a car crash on the Sun Yat-sen Freeway (Freeway No. 1) early yesterday, the National Highway Police Bureau said. He was 39. Wang’s sedan crashed into a heavy truck at about 1:30am near the 106.4km mark southbound between the Toufen and Touwu interchanges in Hsinchu’s Xiangshan District. The truck had earlier collided with a light truck, with both trucks stopping on the roadway, police said. The freeway section is unlit and the driver of the heavy truck did not place a warning triangle on the road following the first collision, police said. The driver and a passenger in the light truck sustained minor injuries, police said. Wang played in the Super Basketball League from 2007 to 2014. He won the league’s All-Star three-point contest in 2013.
BASEBALL
Yu Chang injured
Taiwan’s sole active MLB player, Yu Chang, is expected to miss six weeks due to a left wrist fracture that requires surgery. The Boston Red Sox utility infielder was pulled from Monday’s game against the Baltimore Orioles following a swing and a miss against a Bryan Baker slider at the top of the seventh inning. The Red Sox on Tuesday placed Chang on the 10-day injured list due to a left hamate fracture. In a social media post on Wednesday, Chang said the injury was “the last thing an athlete wants,” adding that he was scheduled to undergo wrist surgery yesterday. Chang said he was “very touched” by the concern and encouragement he had received, adding that he “can’t wait to challenge Green Monster again.”
SOCCER
“Pele” made an adjective
The word “pele” on Wednesday was added to the more than 167,000 words in the Michaelis Portuguese dictionary printed in Brazil, denoting something or someone extraordinary — the sense in which it is already employed informally in Brazil. “The expression already used to refer to someone who is the best at what they do has been eternalized on the pages of the dictionary,” the Pele Foundation wrote on Instagram. Under the new entry, the word is defined as “exceptional, incomparable, unique” — qualities associated with Pele, who was known as “The King.” He died in December last year at the age of 82.
Yu Yao-hsing on Tuesday nabbed Taiwan’s only goal in the final round of qualifiers for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, as they fell 3-1 to Sri Lanka at Taipei Municipal Stadium. Early goals from Sri Lanka in the first half left Taiwan struggling to get on the board, and Christopher Tiao’s own goal at 53 minutes sealed the team’s fate in the third round of qualifiers. While acknowledging that the defeat, Taiwan’s sixth in Group D, was disappointing, head coach Matt Ross said he saw reasons to stay positive about the team’s development. “There were lots of positive signs in terms of the
INDIGESTION: Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup for a third consecutive time after a 4-1 defeat to Bosnia on penalties in a loss Gattuso said was ‘difficult to digest’ Coach Graham Arnold on Tuesday challenged his players to “shock the world” after Iraq became the 48th and final team to qualify for the FIFA World Cup with a nerve-shredding 2-1 win over Bolivia in an intercontinental playoff in Mexico, as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Sweden and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) also secured their places at the finals. Iraq, whose preparations were disrupted by the war in the Middle East, sealed their first appearance at the finals in 40 years and are to play in Group I against France, Senegal and Norway. Goals from Ali al-Hamadi
Teng Kai-wei, the only Taiwanese player on an opening-day roster in this year’s Major League Baseball (MLB) season, took his first win of the year with the Houston Astros in his season debut. Teng entered in relief in the top of the fifth inning against the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday, with the Astros trailing 5-0. He pitched 2-1/3 scoreless innings with two strikeouts, as Houston scored 11 runs during his outing to snatch an 11-9 comeback victory. The win is the Astros’ first of the season and the third of Teng’s MLB career. “It’s my first time pitching for the Astros, so
Top seeded Jessica Pegula on Friday once again fought back from a set down to reach the WTA Charleston Open semi-finals with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 win against Russia’s Diana Shnaider. Defending champion Pegula has lost the first set in all three of her matches at the tournament so far, but again dug deep to maintain her hopes of retaining the title. The world No. 5 from the US took 2 hours, 10 minutes to defeat 19th-ranked Shnaider, relying on a formidable service game that included eight aces. Shnaider battled well in the first two sets and broke early for a 2-0 lead
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