BASEBALL
Monkeys top KT Wiz, Eagles
Taiwan Series champions the Rakuten Monkeys yesterday beat South Korea’s KT Wiz of the KBO League 6-3 in the final game of the Asia Professional Baseball Exchange Series in Taoyuan. The three-day series of exhibition games, designed to showcase South Korean and Japanese baseball to a Taiwanese audience, started on Friday with the KT Wiz playing Nippon Professional Baseball’s the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, with the game ending in a 1-1 tie after nine innings at Rakuten Taoyuan Baseball Stadium. In Saturday night’s Rakuten faceoff, the Monkeys topped the Eagles 3-1, while their Japanese counterparts brought out their Taiwanese stars to play with compatriots, including Yang Po-hsiang on second base and fellow Taitung County native Sung Chiao-hao, who pitched for Taiwan in the 2017 and 2023 World Baseball Classics.
Photo: CNA
BASEBALL
Baseball legend honored
The Chinese Taipei Baseball Association on Friday congratulated baseball legend Sadaharu Oh, a citizen of the Republic of China (ROC), on receiving Japan’s prestigious Order of Culture at the age of 85. Japanese Emperor Naruhito on Monday last week presented Oh with the honor, making him only the second baseball player to receive the award. Oh, whose Chinese name is Wang Chen-chih, was recognized for his outstanding contributions to sports development over his illustrious career. Association chairman Jeffrey Koo Jr in a statement congratulated Oh and said he had invited the legend to visit Taiwan at the end of February next year with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks for exhibition games that would serve as warm-ups for the World Baseball Classic. Oh is chairman of the Hawks. Koo also invited Oh to hold special coaching sessions with Taiwan’s team ahead of the world tournament, which Oh apparently accepted as long as his health permits, the association said. The world career home run record holder with 868 homers, Oh is the fourth Japanese athlete and the second baseball player to receive the Order of Culture since its establishment in 1937. Born in Japan in 1940 to a Japanese mother and Chinese father, Oh has lived in Japan all his life, but holds ROC citizenship. Oh has turned down multiple opportunities to become a naturalized Japanese citizen in accordance with his father’s wishes.
RUGBY
Australia dominate Ashes
After a 22-year wait for a rugby league Ashes series, England fans had hoped home advantage would give them a fighting chance of challenging their Australian counterparts. Instead, a series whitewash only highlighted the gap between the old foes. A first successive Ashes series whitewash since 1986 was sealed with a comprehensive 30-8 Australian victory in the final test at Headingley on Saturday, another occasion when England were vastly inferior. England supporters sang “you’re getting sacked in the morning” in the direction of coach Shaun Wane as the match wore on, with a World Cup to come next year. “I don’t believe, I know I am” the right man to lead England into the Rugby League World Cup, Wane told reporters. “The only people who I want on my side are the players and the staff, and I know I’ve got that.”
ANFIELD BLUES: Kylian Mbappe arrived at Anfield on a run of 21 goals in 17 games, but he managed just three attempts in the match, none of them hitting the target Kylian Mbappe has been nearly unstoppable this season, but he hit a roadblock in their UEFA Champions League match at Anfield on Tuesday. For the second year running, the Real Madrid forward had a night to forget at Merseyside as Liverpool won 1-0. Mbappe looked a shadow of the player who has been tearing defenses apart all season. “We were lacking that threat in the final third,” said Madrid coach Xabi Alonso, without naming Mbappe individually. The FIFA World Cup winner for France rarely looked capable of finding a breakthrough against a Liverpool team who have been so defensively fragile for much of the
LOCAL SUCCESS: In the doubles, Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia defeated Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in straight sets Elena Rybakina on Monday punched her ticket to the WTA Finals last four with an impressive 3-6, 6-1, 6-0 victory over second seed Iga Swiatek in round-robin play in Riyadh. After cruising past Amanda Anisimova in her opener on Saturday, Rybakina claimed her second win of the week to guarantee herself top spot in the Serena Williams Group. Anisimova on Monday rallied back from a set and a break down to triumph 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in her all-American battle with seventh seed Madison Keys, who has been eliminated from the competition. “Madi was playing so well, it was quite a battle out there,”
Erling Haaland on Sunday scored twice to propel Manchester City up to second in the English Premier League with a 3-1 win over AFC Bournemouth. The Cherries started the day in second thanks to the longest unbeaten run in the English top flight, but Andoni Iraola’s side were undone by the scintillating form of the Norwegian striker, who took his tally to 13 Premier League goals in 10 games. Haaland’s relentless streak is maintaining City’s title challenge as they reduced the gap to leaders Arsenal back to six points and edged one point ahead of Liverpool, who they face at the weekend. “Important
For almost 30 minutes, Vitomir Maricic did not take a breath. Face down in a pool, surrounded by anxious onlookers, the Croatian freediver fought spasming pain to redefine what doctors thought was possible. When he finally surfaced, he had smashed the previous Guinness World Record for the longest breath-hold underwater by nearly five minutes. However, even with the help of pure oxygen before the attempt, it had pushed him to the limit. “Everything was difficult, just overwhelming,” Maricic, 40, told reporters, reflecting on the record-breaking day on June 14. “When I dive, I completely disconnect from everything, as if I’m not even there.
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