YOUTH GAMES
Taiwanese vie for medals
A team of 151 Taiwanese are competing for medals across 16 sports at the Asian Youth Games, which opened on Wednesday in Bahrain. The delegation attended the opening ceremony led by flag bearer Lin Li-wei, a volleyball player, and taekwondoin Wang Chieh-ling. Lin, 16, was a member of the team who finished third at last year’s FIVB Boys’ Under-17 World Championship in Bulgaria, marking the country’s best-ever result. Wang, 15, took gold in the women’s under-44kg division at last year’s Chuncheon World Taekwondo Junior Championships in South Korea and the World School Sport Games in Bahrain. The Asian Youth Games runs through Oct. 31.
Photo courtesy of the ministry of Sports
TENNIS
Chan Hao-ching exits
Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching yesterday exited from the women’s doubles at the Toray Pan Pacific Open (Japan Open). The Taiwanese and her Chinese partner Jiang Xinyu were beaten 6-4, 6-4 by Taylor Townsend of the US and Ellen Perez of Australia at the US$1,064,510 hard-court tournament at Utsubo Tennis Center in Tokyo.
Photo: Reuters
CYCLING
French rider freed
A Russian court yesterday freed a French long-distance cyclist after finding him guilty of illegally crossing the country’s border with China while trying to break the world record for cycling across the Eurasian landmass. Sofiane Sehili, a French citizen who describes himself as an “ultra-endurance racer and adventure cyclist,” was freed by the court in Russia’s Far Eastern district and exempted from paying a 50,000-ruble (US$615) fine, a court in Primorye said. The court said Sehili had admitted his guilt. Sehili’s posts on social media showed that he was cycling from China to Russia early last month. He did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Sehili began his odyssey on July 1 near Lisbon. He intended to finish in the Russia’s Vladivostok. He was trying to beat the record for cycling across Eurasia held by Jonas Deichmann from Germany, who did the vast journey in 64 days, 2 hours and 26 minutes, according to Guinness World Records.
Photo: AP
CHESS
Kramnik faces probe
Former world champion Vladimir Kramnik is facing disciplinary proceedings over public attacks on US grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky, whose death this week at age 29 has prompted outrage and calls for action, the International Chess Federation (FIDE) said on Wednesday. The cause of Naroditsky’s death has not been made public. Naroditsky was accused by Kramnik of cheating online last year. “I, along with the FIDE management board, will formally refer all relevant public statements made by GM Vladimir Kramnik — both before and after the tragic death of GM Daniel Naroditsky — to the FIDE Ethics and Disciplinary Commission for independent consideration,” FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich said in a statement. Naroditsky denied any wrongdoing.
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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