Taiwan on Friday beat China to win the gold medal in the 200m open on the first day of the Asian Dragon Boat Championships in Hong Kong, before going on to pick up four silvers and four bronzes by the end of the competition yesterday.
Hosted by Hong Kong for the first time in 28 years, the three-day championship opened this year with teams from 13 countries and regions comprising about 800 athletes.
The championship features races over four distances — 100m, 200m, 500m and 2,000m. The competitions are also split into open, mixed and women’s groups and by boat size — standard 12.49m long boats known as DB22 and small 9m long boats known as DB12.
In the 200m dash, Taiwanese rowers competing in the DB12 open group finished first in 47.514 seconds, ahead of China’s 47.66 seconds and Thailand’s 48 seconds.
Taiwan’s coach Hou Hung-chang told reporters after the race that the gold medal win did not come easily, especially against strong teams from China and Thailand.
Hou said he was proud of his rowers, who gave their all and persevered to the end.
Taiwanese also clinched two silver medals in the open 2,000m DB22 and women’s 200m DB22, along with two bronze medals in the women’s 2,000 DB22 and open 200m DB22.
On Saturday, Taiwan won silver in the open 100m DB12 and bronze in the women’s 100m DB12, while they yesterday bested China by just two seconds to grab the silver medal in the open 500m DB12 and held on to pick up the bronze medal in the open 500m DB22.
Carlos Alcaraz on Sunday fought through a second-set slump to post a roller-coaster 6-1, 2-6, 6-3 victory over Damir Dzumhur in his opening match at the Cincinnati Open. The Spaniard, playing his first tournament since losing to Jannik Sinner in the Wimbledon final, raced through the first set, but completely lost his way in the second, dropping his serve twice against the 33-year-old Bosnian. Alcaraz regained his intensity and cut down his errors in the third set as a seventh ace took him to a match point that was converted when Dzumhur fired wide. “It was just a roller coaster,” said the second
NEXT ROUND: World No. 1s Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka opened their title defenses with straight-sets wins, while Iga Swiatek and Taylor Fritz also advanced Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka got their title defenses off to smooth starts as they powered into the third round of the ATP-WTA Cincinnati Open on Saturday. The men’s and women’s top seeds, each ranked No. 1 in the world, were both competing for the first time since Wimbledon, where Sinner lifted the title and Sabalenka bowed out in the women’s semi-finals. Sinner crushed Colombian Daniel Elahi Galan 6-1, 6-1 in steamy afternoon weather, while Sabalenka beat 2023 Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova 7-5, 6-1 under the lights of the night session. Sabalenka needed 54 minutes and a service break in the final game
Taiwan’s men’s basketball team on Monday clinched a spot in the FIBA Asia Cup quarter-finals with a 78-64 win over Jordan in Saudi Arabia, securing their best finish in the tournament since placing fourth in 2013. The win was sweet revenge for Taiwan, who were denied a quarter-final spot by Jordan at the same stage of the previous Asia Cup in 2022 after blowing a nine-point lead in the final minute and losing 97-96 on a half-court buzzer-beater. “History is part of the journey,” Taiwan head coach Gianluca Tucci said when asked about the 2022 collapse of the team, who he did
TECH ISSUES: Before Sinner’s match against Diallo the lights went out at the courts, and during it the electronic line-calling system partly failed and an alarm sounded Jannik Sinner on Monday ignored technical issues interruptions and a blaring alarm to defeat Gabriel Diallo 6-2, 7-6 (8/6) on a day of distractions at the Cincinnati Open. The top-seeded defending champion got down to business against the 35th-ranked Canadian, who was plagued by eight first-set double faults and 49 unforced errors in the match as he faced the best in the world. Sinner recovered smoothly from an early break down and had his hands full on his way into the fourth round, sending over an ace on match point after saving a set point in the tiebreaker. Play was stopped briefly with
RSS