Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/11/05
By: Claudia Liu, Christie Chen and Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, Nov. 5 (CNA) Former Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) participated in a marathon in the

outlying Matsu Islands on Saturday along with 1,500 runners, saying the race will contribute to sports development.

Also running a Facebook Live broadcast during the event, Ma said he was very happy to take part in the marathon, adding that it was not easy to hold a race like this in an offshore island that is so far away from Taiwan.

He said he believed that the 2nd Annual Matsu International Marathon, attended by runners from countries such as New Zealand, Australia, Kenya and China, could boost sports development.

The marathon includes a competitive full marathon (42 kilometers), a half marathon (21 km) and a 10-km run. Ma was not enrolled in any of them but only ran casually for a few kilometers.

The races took runners to the islands’ historic sites, such as Tunnel 88, an abandoned military tunnel that is now a wine cellar, and Beihai Tunnel, which was used by the Republic of China Army as an underground wharf for supply boats in the 1960s.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/11/05
By: Feng Shao-fu and Christie Chen

Taipei, Nov. 5 (CNA) Runners from Kenya broke course records at the 2nd Matsu International Marathon

on Saturday to clinch top place in both the men’s and women’s race held on the offshore island of Matsu.

Cosmas Kimeu Mukuthi completed the 42-kilometer run in 3 hours, 12 minutes and 58 seconds in the men’s race, while Dorcas Jebotip Tarus took the women’s title in 3 hours and 40 minutes.

The records by Mukuthi and Tarus surpassed those of last year’s winners – Kenyan runner Richard Mutua Mutisya, who won the men’s event in 3 hours, 20 minutes and 43 seconds and Taiwan’s Chen Li-chu (陳麗珠), who took the women’s title in 4 hours, 8 minutes and 10 seconds.

Mukuthi told reporters after the event that the Matsu International Marathon was difficult and took him more time to complete than most marathons because of its difficult terrain. He said he usually runs the marathon in about 2 hours and 20 minutes.    [FULL  STORY

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/11/05
By: Hao Hsueh-chin and Romulo Huang

Taipei, Nov. 5 (CNA) The 2016 Citizens Sports Games, a national competition organized around events not included in the Olympic games, officially opened on Saturday in Taichung, central Taiwan, with more than 8,000 athletes from 22 cities and counties around Taiwan taking part.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) urged the general public to embrace sport which he said is not only a healthy pastime but can also help facilitate breakthroughs in other areas.

Chen also praised the hard work of Taichung in organizing such a national sporting event, which he said would provide the city with invaluable experiences for future large-scale events such as the 2018 World Flora Expo and 2019 East Asian Youth Games.

A total of 25 disciplines will be contested during the games which will run through Nov. 9.   [SOURCE]

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 03, 2016
By: Jason Pan / Staff reporter

The new head of Taiwan’s national soccer team yesterday said he would demand that players improve

their game and boost their skills through each tournament.
Kazuo Kuroda told a news conference that his agenda would begin with games in Hong Kong from Sunday as he outlined preparation and planning strategies.

The Chinese Taipei Football Association (CTFA) yesterday officially announced Kuroda’s appointment to a one-year role with the national team, replacing countryman Toshiaki Imai, who was dismissed last month.

Kuroda has been in Taiwan since 2012 taking care of youth development as part of a deal with the Japanese Football Association.

“Kuroda has helped to develop Taiwan’s youth soccer program and we have seen good results,” CTFA general-secretary Chen Wei-jen said. “He has a wealth of soccer knowledge and experience. He is highly respected by all coaches and players. Everyone looks up to him.”    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/11/02
By: Lee Yu-cheng and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, Nov. 2 (CNA) The Taiwanese president of the International Boxing Association (AIBA) Wu Ching-kuo (吳經國) said Wednesday that a New York Times report on alleged financial irregularities in his organization was inaccurate and was probably linked to an AIBA staff member who was fired and may be seeking revenge.

According to the report published Monday in The New York Times, AIBA has been unable to account for almost half of a US$10 million loan that was obtained in 2010 from a private company in Azerbaijan to help pay for a new boxing league in North America.

The matter was uncovered by investigators from the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, which was commissioned in 2015 by Wu after he was pressured by Olympic officials to address possible financial problems in AIBA, the news report said.

The loan was never paid back, the investigators could not account for how more than US$4.5 million of the money was spent, and AIBA could not say where the missing money went, according to the New York Times.    [FULL STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/10/28
By: Lee Chin-wei and Kuo Chung-han

Taipei, Oct. 28 (CNA) Spanish cyclist Oscar Pujol won the 2016 Taiwan KOM (King of

the Mountains) Challenge and the race’s NT$1 million (US$31,615) first prize on Friday, covering the mountainous 105-kilometer course in just under three and a half hours.

Fan Yung-yi (范永奕) was the top Taiwanese finisher, placing 13th in a time of 3 hours, 37 minutes, and 35.94 seconds, 7 minutes 52 seconds behind Pujol.

Emma Jane Pooley, a former British professional cyclist and a first timer in the challenge, won the woman’s title and NT$200,000 first prize in 4:08:40.14.

Taiwanese cyclist Chen Tzu-yin (陳姿吟) finished third in 4:38:07.11 and countrywoman Huang Ting-ying (黃亭茵), who competed in the Rio Olympics, placed fourth, one minute 50 seconds behind Chen.

Now in its fifth year, the grueling one-day race takes cyclists on the Central Cross-Island Highway through mountains in eastern and central Taiwan.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 29, 2016
By: Dave Carroll / Staff reporter, with AP, SINGAPORE

Taiwanese sisters Chan Hao-ching and Chan Yung-jan came up against familiar foes in

the doubles quarter-finals at the WTA Finals in Singapore yesterday and the match ended in a depressingly familiar outcome.

It was always going to be a tough ask for the Taiwanese duo to advance to the semi-finals past second seeds Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza in their opponents’ first match since splitting up as a pairing in August, with the Chan sisters falling to a 7-6 (12/10), 7-5 defeat in five minutes short of two hours.

“It’s great to be back in Singapore,” Mirza was quoted as saying on the WTA Web site after the match. “It’s also great to be back with Martina, and it’s good to get that win.”

However, the Chan sisters, who traveled to Singapore after winning their third title of the season in Hong Kong, pushed the Swiss-Indian duo all the way, with each pairing creating three match points in a tense first-set tiebreak, before the second seeds finally converted.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/10/27
By: Lee Yu-cheng and Lilian Wu

Taipei, Oct. 27 (CNA) Taiwan will increase sports exchanges with Southeast Asian countries in line with the government’s “new southbound policy,” the Sports Administration said Thursday.

This will be one of three strategies to promote the government policy, the other two being to encourage new immigrants and migrant workers to take part in local sports meets and increase exchanges with sporting officials from other countries.

Wang Han-chung (王漢忠), chief secretary of the administration, cited as an example plans to invite Filipino basketball teams to Taiwan early next year, noting that the Philippines excels at the sport.    [FULL STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 28, 2016
By: Jason Pan / Staff reporter, in Taoyuan

The EDA Rhinos yesterday won their third straight game against the Brothers Baseball

Club and took a 3-2 lead in the CPBL Taiwan Series by clobbering their opponent 11-1 at the Taoyuan International Stadium.

While the Brothers seized victory in the opening two games of the series, the Rhinos prevailed in a narrow one-run victory in the third game. Their hitters stayed red hot, helping the team to three wins in the past three days.

The pitchers also made big contributions, with EDA’s US right-hander Mike Loree giving an outstanding performance, going through six innings with six strikeouts and giving up five hits on one run to help notch up the victory.

Loree showed why he is the league’s top pitcher by keeping the opposition batters off-balance and out-dueling Brothers’ starter Nathan Long.     [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: October 28, 2016
By: CNA

The mascots of professional baseball team EDA Rhinos sit together on the team’s home turf on Thursday, Oct. 27. EDA is playing Chinatrust Bothers in this year’s championship match. Four victories out of seven games are required to secure the title. EDA played at its home field for the last time yesterday. The Brothers won the first two games, with the Rhinos winning the following two.   [SOURCE]