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.
The Rakuten Monkeys on Sunday downed the CTBC Brothers 2-1, handing the hosts their second consecutive loss in the best-of-seven CPBL Taiwan Series at the Taipei Dome. Monkeys’ ace starter Pedro Fernandez of the Dominican Republic dominated on the mound, cruising through six scoreless innings before giving up a run on a wild pitch in the bottom of the seventh inning. He gave up only three hits and walked two batters in a 93-pitch outing, giving his Taoyuan-based team an edge. Offensively, the Monkeys’ leadoff batter Lin Li hit Brothers starter Brandon Leibrandt’s pitch over the center-field wall in the game’s first at-bat,
The tiny village club of Mjallby AIF on Monday won the top tier Swedish soccer league with a 2-0 away win at IFK Gothenburg, sealing the title with three rounds of matches remaining. Jacob Bergstrom and Tom Pettersson scored the goals in Mjallby’s 20th win in 27 league games. Mjallby has a population of fewer than 1,400 people and plays in an outdated 6,000-seat stadium with stands weathered by the winds of the Baltic Sea. “It’s a huge relief to experience this now, a relief with three games to go,” said Anders Torstensson, a former army officer and secondary-school teacher who coaches the
Jahmyr Gibbs was offered oxygen on the bench after a 78-yard run. He turned it down. Clearly, he was not out of breath. Gibbs on Monday scored on a long sprint in the second quarter, a five-yard spinning plunge in the third and accounted for a career-high 218 yards from the scrimmage to lead the Detroit Lions in a 24-9 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. “You felt like this was coming,” Detroit coach Dan Campbell said. “This has been building.” The Lions (5-2) bounced back from a loss as they have done flawlessly for nearly three years, extending their NFL-long streak of 51 games
Marco Bezzecchi yesterday demolished the Australian MotoGP lap record in setting the standard during second practice, becoming the first rider ever to dip below 1 minute, 27 seconds at Phillip Island. The Italian, who won the Indonesia sprint race two weeks ago before slamming into world champion Marc Marquez during the grand prix, blazed around the waterfront circuit in 1 minute, 26.580 seconds on his Aprilia. His time shattered the previous best of 1 minute, 27.246 seconds set by Jorge Martin in 2023. Not content with that, he then bettered it with a sizzling 1 minute, 26.492 seconds. That left Bezzecchi 0.291 seconds
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