The last baseball qualifying round before the Tokyo Olympic Games is to be held in Taichung from June 16 to 20, CPBL chairman Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) said yesterday, adding that the league would follow disease prevention guidelines laid out by the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC).
Tsai made the remarks during an interview with political commentator Clara Chou (周玉蔻) on her morning radio show.
Taiwan, Australia, China and the Netherlands, as well as two other countries ranked second and third in the Americas qualifiers, would compete in the final qualifiers, which would send only one team to the Games in July.
Photo: Screen grab from the Internet
The Americas qualifiers are scheduled to take place in early June in Florida, the World Baseball Softball Confederation said on Saturday last week.
While the CPBL is responsible for choosing professional baseball players for the national team, the CTBA would coordinate with the CECC to ensure that all players follow the disease prevention guidelines applicable to them during the qualifiers, Tsai said.
The league would suspend all of its games when the qualifiers begin, so that players on the national team can focus on preparing for the competition, he said.
Asked what would happen if the last qualifying round was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said Taiwan would automatically qualify to compete in Tokyo, as it ranks No. 1 in points.
“I believe the competition should be able to proceed without any problem,” he said.
Several Taiwanese playing in overseas professional leagues have returned to Taiwan, including Wang Wei-chung (王維中) and Hu Chih-wei (胡智為) of the Wei Chuan Dragons, and Chiang Shao-ching (江少慶) of the Fubon Guardians.
Chen Wei-yin (陳偉殷), who plays for the Hanshin Tigers in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, has said he is willing to compete in the qualifiers as long as the nation needs him.
CTBA secretary-general Richard Lin (林宗成) said that the association and CPBL representatives would today discuss the disease prevention guidelines to be implemented during the qualifiers.
“We have drafted a plan and will send it to the Sports Administration after the details are finalized through our meeting with the CPBL. The Sports Administration would then turn the plan over to the CECC,” he said.
The association’s proposed plan would require foreign players to undergo seven days of quarantine upon arriving in Taiwan, Lin said, adding that the CECC would have the final say on the number of days that the players should spend in quarantine.
Deputy Minister of the Interior Chen Tsung-yen (陳宗彥), who is deputy head of the CECC, said that as players from five countries are to compete in the qualifier, the CTBA has been asked to submit a comprehensive disease prevention plan to the Sports Administration for a preliminary review.
“We will have experts review the plan handed to us by the Sports Administration,” Chen said.
The guidelines are likely to resemble those used to form “travel bubbles,” he added.
To ensure that the qualifiers can proceed as planned, the CECC might propose that all foreign players be quarantined for at least five days, Chen said, adding that they can only compete after they test negative for COVID-19.
Experts need to further discuss whether the players’ movements would be restricted during their stay in Taiwan, Chen said.
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) is to begin his one-year alternative military service tomorrow amid ongoing legal issues, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. Wang, who last month was released on bail of NT$150,000 (US$4,561) as he faces charges of allegedly attempting to evade military service and forging documents, has been ordered to report to Taipei Railway Station at 9am tomorrow, the Alternative Military Service Training and Management Center said. The 33-year-old would join about 1,300 other conscripts in the 263rd cohort of general alternative service for training at the Chenggong Ling camp in Taichung, a center official told reporters. Wang would first
MINOR DISRUPTION: The outage affected check-in and security screening, while passport control was done manually and runway operations continued unaffected The main departure hall and other parts of Terminal 2 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport lost power on Tuesday, causing confusion among passengers before electricity was fully restored more than an hour later. The outage, the cause of which is still being investigated, began at about midday and affected parts of Terminal 2, including the check-in gates, the security screening area and some duty-free shops. Parts of the terminal immediately activated backup power sources, while others remained dark until power was restored in some of the affected areas starting at 12:23pm. Power was fully restored at 1:13pm. Taoyuan International Airport Corp said in a
RSS