Focus Taiwan
Date: 04/06/2020
By: Hsieh Ching-wen and Joseph Yeh

Taipei, April 6 (CNA) Taiwan's baseball authorities said Monday that its national teams in three different age brackets are automatically qualified to advance to the PONY Baseball world series events to be held later this year, after event organizers announced last week the cancellation of the Asia-Pacific regional competitions due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Taiwan's Chinese Taipei Baseball Association (CTBA) said it has received notification from PONY Baseball and Softball that since Taiwanese teams have won championship titles in its Pony Bronco League (players 11 to 12 of age); Pony League (13 to 14) and Palomino League (15 to 18) in 2019, they have all been granted berths to compete in this year's world series events.

The Pony Bronco league world series will be staged in Texas from July 31 to Aug. 3, while the world series of the Pony League will be held Aug. 7-12 in Pennsylvania and the Palomino League is slated to be held July 31-Aug. 3, also in Texas, according to the CTBA.

The CTBA said it is scheduled to hold tournaments within the country in May in closed-door format due to the COVID-19 pandemic to come up with national squads to compete in all three world series in the U.S. this summer.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan’s CPBL to open April 11 without live audience for first time in history

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/04/01
By: Ching-Tse Cheng, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) announced Wednesday (April 1) that the games will be held with no spectators for the first time in history once the season opens on April 11.

Following a virtual meeting between CPBL executives, the league said that the new season will open as originally scheduled, but no fans will be allowed into the ballparks until the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is over. According to CNA, the CPBL will become the first pro baseball league in the world to open its season since the outbreak began in December.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 03/23/2020
By: Long Po-an and Chiang Yi-ching

Taipei, March 23 (CNA) Taiwan is still preparing to participate in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, once the health of its athletes will not be at risk, a top sports official said Monday.

In a legislative hearing, Director-General of the Sports Administration Kao Chin-hsung (高俊雄) said that while he respected Canada's decision to drop out due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, Taiwan will make its own call on the matter.

"The decision of other countries regarding their participation in the Olympics will not influence our own choice on the matter," Kao said, in response to a legislator's question on whether Taiwan would follow the lead of Canada, which announced its withdrawal on Sunday.

Taiwan is going ahead with its preparations to compete in the 2020 Summer Olympics, as long as the health of its athletes will not be at risk, Kao said.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 22, 2020
By: Staff writer, with CNA

The Badminton World Federation (BWF) hailed Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying after her win at the All England Open Badminton Championships with a video montage on Facebook as the shuttler began 14 days of self-quarantine on her return to Taiwan.

The BWF Facebook group released the video on Friday, saying: “She is terrific, she is tenacious, she is the queen. All hail Queen Tai,” lauding her third All England title after her 21-19, 21-15 victory over top seed and then-world No. 1 Chen Yufei of China in in Birmingham on Sunday.

Tai on Wednesday posted a photograph of herself onboard an EVA Airways flight to Taiwan wearing a mask and saying how nice it was to return to the place she is familiar with.

“Everyone is wearing a mask and treating each other politely,” she wrote.

Tai said that airport personnel were surprised that she was returning from Europe and asked if she knew about the quarantine rules.

Tai wrote that she told the airport staff she was aware of the rules. She had displayed care during the competition, insisting that she and reporters wear masks during interviews, and that microphones be sterilized regularly.    [FULL  STORY]

Teenager is one of 27 new coronavirus cases confirmed in Taiwan Friday March 20

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/03/20
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A teenager who passed through four European countries was Taiwan’s first athlete to be confirmed as a coronavirus patient, reports said Friday (March 20).

He was one of 27 new cases, including 24 imported ones, confirmed by the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), taking the country’s total to 135. A man in his eighties was announced as Taiwan’s second death caused by the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19).

The teenager was studying at a sports faculty and had traveled overseas to take part in a competition, CNA reported, though the authorities did not mention which sport he was active in. He was not a member of the national team, but had been in training as a backup, according to some media reports. The national team was staying in quarantine at a training center in north Taiwan, while the young man was taken to hospital.3    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 03/20/2020
By: William Yen and Lung Po-an

Taipei, March 20 (CNA) The preparations for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo are going ahead as scheduled, with all athletes choosing if they want to participate or not due to the threat posed by COVID-19, according to a top Taiwanese Olympic Committee official Friday.

Sun Lih-chyun (孫立群), a consultant with Taiwan's Olympic Committee, said preparations are still under way for the country's delegation because there has been no official statement about the Olympics being delayed or canceled.

However, athletes will have to decide for themselves if they want to participate in the event and will not be pressured, he said.

Sun made the remark after the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the authority responsible for organizing the Olympic Games, teleconferenced the 45 national Olympic Committees in Asia Thursday.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan’s karate ace announces qualification for Olympics by saying, 'I did it!'

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/03/19
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — “I did it!” Taiwan’s karate ace Wen Tzu-yun (文姿云) said she had qualified for Tokyo 2020 in a Facebook post on Thursday (March 19).

The qualification rounds for Tokyo 2020’s karate competition were originally scheduled to last until April 6, in order to produce top two athletes from each weight category for the Olympics, NOWnews reported. However, due to the Wuhan virus, qualification events in March and April were canceled.    [FULL  STORY]

AFP
Date: 15 Mar2020

Taiwan's Tai Tzu-ying beat Chinese world number one Chen Yufei 21-19, 21-15 to win the All

England badminton Championship for the third time on Sunday.

Tai, seeded second, was on a revenge mission in Birmingham after losing last year's final against Chen.

The 25-year-old's previous All England titles came in 2017 and 2018 and she clinched a third in impressive style.

"I'm very excited to have won the Yonex All England," Tai said.

"I've very familiar with playing against Chen as I've played against her so many times.

"I put her under pressure today, and I'm very happy that I was able to control the rallies well. I really like to play this tournament."    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 16, 2020
By: Staff writer, with CNA and AFP

Taiwanese shuttlers Tai Tzu-ying and Chou Tien-chen reached the finals of the women’s and men’s singles respectively at the All England Open after toppling their opponents in the semi-finals on Saturday.

Tai, the second-seeded world No. 2, triumphed over eighth-seeded world No. 7 and defending Olympic champion Carolina Marin of Spain 19-21, 21-13, 21-11 in a match that lasted 62 minutes.

The Taiwanese badminton ace lost the first game, but turned things around in the next two games by sending Marin running from line to line with aggressive strikes and disguised pushes that forced the Spaniard to go long beyond the side and back lines.

With the latest win, Tai extended her head-to-head record against Marin to 9-6 and pocketed her fourth consecutive ticket to the All England Open final.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 03/14/2020
By: William Yen

Taipei, March 14 (CNA) Taiwanese badminton aces Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎) and Chou Tien-chen (周

天成) advanced into the semifinals of their respective categories at the Yonex All England Open after straight-game triumphs in the quarterfinals Friday.

The second-seeded world's No. 2 Tai toppled world No. 17 Pornpawee Chochuwong of Thailand 21-9, 21-11 in a match that lasted only 30 minutes.

Tai opened the match with a 13-2 run and never looked back, winning the first game 21-9. Chochuwong made a stunning attempt in the second game to cut the deficit to two points, but Tai returned to shut out her opponent with six unanswered points to inevitably pocket the game 21-11.

The Taiwanese shuttler now holds a 3-0 head-to-head record against the 22-year-old Thai who just recently won the women's singles at the Barcelona Spain Masters 2020 in February, after defeating Carolina Marin of Spain in an over one hour long final match.    [FULL  STORY]