Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-04-17

The central Taiwan city of Taichung has been selected as one of the global venues for L’Etape du Tour, a race for amateur cyclists.

Since Tour de France introduced L’Etape du Tour in 1993, races have been held in ten different countries. This is the first time that an affiliated race will be held in Taiwan.

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Lawmaker Lo Chih-cheng, the ambassador of the event, said on Monday that it’s an honor for Taiwan to be chosen as one of the 14 world venues.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/04/17
By: Hsieh Chia-chen and S.C. Chang

Taipei, April 17 (CNA) People attending events at the Universiade to be held in Taipei will be allowed to take flags no larger than 2 meters in length and 1 meter in width into competition venues, an organizer said Monday.

As to the length of the post attaching the flag, Huang Sung-chen (黃嵩琛), head of the organizing committee’s security department, said there is no limit as long as it does not affect others in the audience.

Huang was among several security officials reporting their respective agencies’ counter-terrorism measures to the Legislature’s Foreign and National Defense Committee for the Aug. 19-30 games in Taipei.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 17, 2017
By: Dave Carroll / Staff reporter

Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday claimed her second doubles title of the season at the Biel Ladies Open.

Hsieh and Romania’s Monica Niculescu rallied from a set down to edge Swiss duo Timea Bacsinszky and Martina Hingis 5-7, 6-3, 10-7 in 1 hour, 45 minutes.

The second seeds saved just one of six break points, but they converted five of 10, winning 68 of the 131 points contested.

It was Hsieh’s second WTA Tour title of the season after she teamed up with Oksana Kalashnikova to win the Hungarian Ladies Open in Budapest in February.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/04/15
By: Huang Tz-chiang and Lilian Wu
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Taipei, April 15 (CNA) Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎), the world’s top-ranked women’s

badminton player, defeated Beiwen Zhang (張蓓雯) of the United States on Saturday to reach the final of the 2017 World BWF Super Series Singapore Open Badminton Championship.

After beating Zhang, the world No. 13, 21-19, 21-15, Tai faces Carolina Marin of Spain in the final.

Tai said after the match that she had not controlled the shuttlecock well enough and made a lot of errors, describing it as a tough match.

She said the biggest challenge in Sunday’s final will be herself, but highlighted the need to make fewer mistakes in order to win.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 15, 2017
By: Jason Pan / Staff reporter

Veteran coach and former star player Chou Chun-san, 48, has agreed to take over as coach of the national basketball team, following months of speculation and negotiations between the Chinese Taipei Basketball Association and sports officials.

Chou said he was contacted on Tuesday after the governing body held a selection meeting and agreed to take the top job after a few days of consideration.

The post had been vacant since a judicial investigation into Yen Chia-hua, head coach of the Super Basketball League’s (SBL) Taiwan Beer team, began in February over allegations that he placed underground bets on games involving teams he coached, including the 2015 William Jones Cup.

The investigation continues, and Yen was questioned and released after posting bail of NT$50,000.   [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 15, 2017
By: Dave Carroll / Staff reporter, with AP, BIEL, Switzerland

Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Monica Niculescu of Romania advanced to the semi-finals of the doubles at the Biel Ladies Open in Switzerland on Thursday, while top seed Barbora Strycova won through to the singles quarter-finals.

Second seeds Hsieh and Niculescu took just 58 minutes to see off Lenka Kuncikova of the Czech Republic and Cornelia Lister of Sweden 6-2, 6-2 in their doubles quarter-final.

The duo saved one of the two break points they faced and converted five of 10, winning 59 of the 85 points contested to advance to a semi-final against either third seeds Raluca Olaru and Olga Savchuk or Viktorija Golubic and Kristyna Pliskova.
[FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 13, 2017
By: Jason Pan / Staff reporter

Legislators yesterday pressured Sports Administration Director-General Lin Te-fu (林德福) to take a tougher stance on speaking up for Taiwanese rights, freedom of expression and for fans’ enthusiasm cheering of the nation’s athletes at this year’s Taipei Summer Universiade.

Lin, appearing at the Education and Culture Committee, said that 49 of the planned 53 Taipei Universiade competition sites have been completed.

He praised Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) for doing a good job of drumming up publicity for the Games, which are to be held from Aug. 19 to 30.

However, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) asked Lin to stand up for Taiwanese rights and freedom of expression, and to allow fans to wave national flags, write slogans and display other items to create a lively atmosphere at the event.    [FULL  STORY]