The Sports Administration yesterday demanded an apology from the national table tennis association for barring 17-year-old Yeh Yi-tian (葉伊恬) from competing in the upcoming World Table Tennis (WTT) United States Smash tournament in Las Vegas this July.
The sports agency said in a statement that the Chinese Taipei Table Tennis Association (CTTTA) must explain to the public why it withdrew Yeh from the WTT tournament in Las Vegas.
The sports agency said it contacted the association to express its disapproval of the decision-making process after receiving a complaint from Yeh’s coach, Chuang Chih-yuan (莊智淵).
Photo courtesy of the Sports Administration
It added it will send an official letter to the association, suspend all subsidies until an apology is issued and replace the secretary-general of the association if necessary.
In a statement released Saturday, the table tennis association said that Yeh and several other players were advised to prioritize the Asian Youth Championships in Uzbekistan over the WTT United States Smash in Las Vegas due to scheduling conflicts.
As a member of Taiwan’s national U19 team, Yeh is expected to represent the country in four designated youth tournaments, including the Asian Youth Championships -- but not the WTT tournament in the US, the association said.
Chuang said he informed the association as early as April that Yeh intended to focus on three open-age international events, including the WTT US Smash, and not participate in the youth championships.
Despite this, the association passed a resolution in early May requiring the 17-year-old to take part in the Asian Youth Championships.
Chuang said the young player, who won the U19 women’s singles title at the WTT Youth Star Contender in Bangkok, Thailand, on May 4, received an invitation to compete in the Las Vegas tournament later in May.
According to Chuang, CTTTA Secretary-General Yeh Kuo-chin (葉國欽) said he would respect the player’s decision not to compete in the Asian Youth Championships, but the association would still not send her to the WTT tournament.
Chuang only found out Yeh had been left out of the WTT US Smash after the tournament draw was released and did not include her.
Yeh’s mother said yesterday that the CTTTA secretary-general should apologize for the mistake and promise such incidents would not be repeated.
"The association should be on the players’ side and help them," she said.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by