Member of the Amis aboriginal tribe sets the new national Taiwan record for girl’s sprinting

Taiwan News
Date: 017/04/26
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — At this year’s national junior high games, a second year

student from New Taipei’s Xikun Junior High School, blew away the competition in the girl’s 100-meter dash and set a new national record in the process.

A member of the Amis tribe, Cheng Hsin-ying (鄭歆瑩), had only managed fourth place finish in last year’s competition, showed that she was on a mission when she clocked a blistering 11.97 seconds in a preliminary heat, obliterating the original competition record of 12.02 seconds. In the semi-final she continued to quicken the pace at 11.92, though it was not awarded a record as there was a tail wind of 2 meters per second.

Cheng did not disappoint in the final, when she clocked a phenomenal 11.81 finish, setting a new competition record and seeming to break the high school gold medalist’s time of 11.82 seconds. However, the time for the high school girl’s winner, Liao Yen-Chun (廖晏均) of Taipei Lishan High School, was later recalculated to tie her mark also at 11.81 seconds. Liao said that she had already heard of Cheng before the meet, but once she saw her in person, she was amazed with her speed and said she really admired her.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/04/25
By: Lin Hung-han and Ko Lin

Taipei, April 25 (CNA) Taiwanese weightlifter Kuo Hsing-chun (郭婞淳) won the gold

medal in the 2017 Asian Weightlifting Championships in Turkmenistan on Monday in the women’s 58-kilogram division.

Kuo, 23, took the gold by lifting 104 kg in the snatch and 137 kg in the clean and jerk, for a total of 241 kg.

The 241 kg achievement was her best performance ever and also beat the 240 kg record that gave Thai weightlifter Sukanya Srisurat a gold medal in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: April 25, 2017
By: The China Post news staff

Taiwan’s Hu Chih-wei (胡智為) of the Tampa Bay Rays made his major league debut

Monday, retiring three batters in relief in Tampa Bay’s 6-3 loss to the Baltimore Orioles .

Hu took the mound in the bottom of the eighth after a brief rain delay with a runner on third and the Orioles already ahead 5 to 3.

The right hander retired the side with nine pitches, including a 94-mph fastball. One run scored on a sacrifice fly was attributed to previous Ray reliever Ryan Garton.

The 23-year-old Taichung native is the twelfth Taiwanese player to reach the majors. He was signed by the Minnesota Twins in 2012 and made his minor league debut in 2013.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/04/23
By: Lee Chin-wei and Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, April 23 (CNA) Taiwan’s top tennis player Lu Yen-hsun (盧彦勳) beat Tatsuma Ito from Japan 6-1, 7-6 (4) on Sunday to win the men’s singles title at the 2017 Santaizi ATP Challenger event, securing his 27th win on the ATP Challenger tour.

The world No. 63 Lu broke Ito three straight times early in the match to take the first set comfortably, but he had a much tougher battle against the world No. 212 Ito in the second set, which went to a tiebreaker.

Lu fell behind 4-2 in the tiebreaker before running off the next five points to clinch the set and the match.

“I want to thank all businesses, friends, and everyone who supports this sport because without that, all kinds of sports are actually a disadvantaged minority,” Lu said during the award ceremony.    [FULL  STORY]

‘SERIOUS MISCONDUCT’:Romanian Ilie Nastase was first banished to the stands and then expelled from a Fed Cup venue as the ITF hinted at further punishment

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 24, 2017
By: Dave Carroll / Staff reporter

Taiwan were on the brink of relegation in their Fed Cup World Group II playoff against

Italy on Saturday, as the visitors lost both opening singles rubbers to fall to a 2-0 deficit in the best-of-five match at the Circolo Tennis in Barletta, Italy.

In a marathon first singles rubber that lasted five minutes short of three hours, Italian world No. 221 Martina Trevisan rallied from a set down to defeat world No. 298 Lee Ya-hsuan 2-6, 6-3, 12-10.

Both players converted 11 of 18 break points, but the Italian managed to conjure up 33 winners to Lee’s 16 to edge a tight opening battle.

“I have never played in a match with so many breaks of serve — that was a first time,” Lee told the Fed Cup Web site. “The wind wasn’t really much of a problem and I made too many errors, but my fitness was okay. I wasn’t having any problems, even though it was a long match.”    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 23, 2017
By: Jason Pan / Staff reporter

The Lamigo Monkeys continued their red-hot form and kept a firm grip on first in the

standings after another quality start from US pitcher Zeke Spruill in their defeat of the Brothers Baseball Club 6-4 at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium yesterday.

Spruill, a former Arizona Diamondbacks player, held off the Brothers and gave the Monkeys a 6-3 lead when he was taken out in the seventh inning.

After surrendering a run in the opening frame, Spruill threw five scoreless innings before getting into trouble in the seventh, but had done enough to chalk up his third win of the season.

New to the Lamigo club this year, the right-hander has found his groove to become a reliable force in the starting rotation.
[FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: April 20, 2017
By: AP

SEATTLE — Wei-Yin Chen and two relievers fell two outs shy of Miami’s first combined

no-hitter and the Marlins one-hit the Seattle Mariners in a 5-0 victory Tuesday night.

The Marlins were on the verge of the sixth no-hitter in franchise history when Mitch Haniger lined a one-out double into right-center field off Kyle Barraclough. The right-hander recovered to strike out Robinson Cano and get Nelson Cruz to line out to end it.

Chen (2-0) did the heavy lifting, silencing the Mariners for seven innings. He was pulled by manager Don Mattingly after throwing 100 pitches, and the bullpen sought to finish what the left-hander from Taiwan had started. Brad Ziegler got three groundouts to get through the eighth, including close plays at first base to get Leonys Martin and Jarrod Dyson, but Haniger got the better of Barraclough, extending his hitting streak to 12 games.    [FULL  STORY]

PLAYING IT SAFE:Miami manager Don Mattingly pulled the Taiwanese starter in the seventh inning, citing Chen’s return from a ligament tear last year and a loss of location

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 20, 2017
By: AFP, LOS ANGELES

Taiwanese pitcher Chen Wei-yin on Tuesday had a no-hitter working through seven

innings when he was lifted from the Marlins’ 5-0 Major League Baseball victory over the Mariners in Seattle.

Chen was in total control, throwing 64 of his 100 pitches for strikes and flummoxing the Mariners hitters with his curveball and changeup.
He had allowed no hits with two strikeouts and two walks when Marlins manager Don Mattingly replaced him on the mound in the eighth inning with Brad Ziegler, who pitched a perfect eighth.

The Mariners’ Mitch Haniger broke up the Marlins’ combined no-hitter bid with one out in the bottom of the ninth with a double to right center off closing pitcher Kyle Barraclough.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/04/18
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)–Taiwan’s only sport event that combines rafting, running and cycling will take place in June and registration for the activity begins now until May 12, the country’s Tourism Bureau said on Tuesday.

The event features road running, cycling and, instead of the usual swimming section, whitewater rafting.

Currently in its eighth year, the 2017 Xiuguluan River Rafting Triathlon will begin at Hualien Xiuguluan River Visitor Center in Ruisui Township, Hualien County at 6:30 a.m. on June 18.

The Tourism Bureau said the previous edition of the event attracted 1,300 participants and the number of participants increases every year.    [FULL  STORY]