FENCING
U-17 team win title
Taiwan’s male under-17 fencers successfully defended their team epee title after defeating South Korea at the 2025 Asian Cadet Fencing Championships in Kuwait. The team clinched the gold with a 45-40 win in Sunday’s final. Chen Bing-jyun got his revenge against Choi Chan-young, who had beaten Chen in Friday’s individual epee final. Joining Chen on Taiwan’s gold-winning team were Lin Mao-xiang, Lee You-chen and Su Min-yi. Coach Ding Hong-kai lauded the young fencers for their boldness in attacking and resilience throughout the competition despite their inexperience. “Even when our athletes made mistakes, they were able to correct them immediately and capitalize on delayed actions to turn the bouts in their favor,” Ding said.
TABLE TENNIS
Lin Yun-ju ends in fourth
Taiwan’s top male paddler Lin Yun-ju lost 4-0 on Sunday to China’s Lin Shidong, world No. 1, in the men’s singles third-place match at the Asian Cup Table Tennis Tournament in China. Lin Yun-ju’s bid for a medal in the tournament ended with a 1-9, 11-6, 11-6, 11-4 defeat in the match, which lasted 35 minutes. It was his seventh consecutive loss to the 19-year-old Chinese player in seven tries. Despite his loss, Lin Yun-ju’s fourth-place finish was a personal best in the Asian Cup and earned him a ticket to the Table Tennis World Cup tournament in April. Meanwhile, in the tournament’s title match, China’s Wang Chuqin, who beat Lin Yun-ju in the semi-finals earlier in the day, defeated his compatriot Liang Jingkun to take the gold.
SOCCER
Van Persie confirmed
Feyenoord have confirmed Robin van Persie as their new coach, a return to the club where he started and ended his illustrious playing career, after a deal was reached to release him from his position at Heerenveen. The 41-year-old Dutchman has signed a contract until June 2027 and would be joined by assistant coach Rene Hake, who briefly worked under Erik ten Hag at Manchester United earlier this season before the latter was sacked. “Everyone knows how special my bond with Feyenoord is,” Van Persie told the club’s Web site.
TENNIS
Williams declines invitation
Former world No. 1 Venus Williams would not compete at next month’s Indian Wells tournament despite the WTA 1000 event giving the 44-year-old American a wild card. Williams, who played only two tournaments last season, said at a speaking event in Denmark that she had not been told of the wildcard before the tournament announced it on Wednesday last week and added that she was unable to compete due to prior commitments. “I found the announcement super amusing because, I don’t know, people seem to be happy, so I was like: ‘Maybe I’ll just go with it, I don’t know,’” Williams said at the event in the city of Naestved. “I’m actually not going. I’m going to be overseas.” Williams boycotted the event for 15 years after fans booed and heckled her younger sister Serena during her 2001 final victory over Kim Clijsters, apparently in response to Venus withdrawing injured from their semi-final.
Wilyer Abreu watched the ball leave the park and tossed his bat high in the air. His Venezuela teammates streamed out of the dugout in celebration. The comeback was on and the win over the reigning World Baseball Classic (WBC) champion Japan was within reach. Japan, their 11-game WBC winning streak on the line, held a 5-4 lead in the sixth inning of Saturday’s thrilling quarter-final matchup when Abreu put his team ahead with the biggest swing of the game: a three-run shot off Hiromi Itoh that sent the loanDepot Park crowd into a passionate roar and helped seize Venezuela’s 8-5
A BREATHLESS BATTLE: France clinched the championship in a vicious back-and-forth match with England, denying Ireland the title by just a few points France won back-to-back Six Nations titles after beating England 48-46 on a last-second penalty-kick by Thomas Ramos in a thriller for the ages on Saturday. England scored their seventh try in the 77th minute and converted for 46-45. If the score held for a few more minutes, Ireland would have been crowned the champion. But France pressed yet again with 14 men, lost possession, regained it, and earned two simultaneous penalties after the fulltime siren. Captain Antoine Dupont debated with referee Nika Amashukeli where the penalty spots were. Ramos, who did not miss a goal-kick all night, finally lined up his seventh
Home runs are greeted with a celebratory shot of espresso and the donning of an Armani jacket. Victories are marked with bottles of red wine while the soaring voice of opera singer Andrea Bocelli echoes through the locker room. Welcome to baseball, Italian-style. Written off as 80-1 underdogs before the World Baseball Classic started, Italy’s fairytale tournament has carried them all the way to today’s (Taipei time) semi-finals in Miami against Venezuela. On Saturday, Italy — who scored a stunning upset of a star-studded US lineup during the pool phase — kept their unbeaten campaign alive with a nail-biting 8-6
Kimi Antonelli became Formula 1’s second-youngest race winner with a composed drive to victory for Mercedes in an eventful Chinese Grand Prix yesterday. The 19-year-old Italian was the youngest pole position starter and briefly lost the lead to Lewis Hamilton of Ferrari at the start, but retook it soon after and was in control after that. “We did it! We did it!” Antonelli shouted to his team on the radio amid laughs and whoops. It was another 1-2 finish for Mercedes to start the season as Antonelli’s teammate George Russell came through a battle with both Ferraris to finish second. Lewis Hamilton was
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