Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/08/30
By: Lee Yu-cheng and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, Aug. 30 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) met Tuesday with Taiwan’s national team that

will attend the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil next month, presenting it with a national flag and wished them much success.

Tsai said she hopes the 13-member team will be able to win even more medals in Rio than the three — one silver and two bronze — Taiwanese athletes bagged at the 2012 Paralympics in London.

The Rio Paralympics will take place from Sept. 7-18. Taiwan will compete in the events of judo, powerlifting, table tennis, athletics, wheelchair tennis, and archery.

In the flag presentation ceremony, the president instructed all the relevant authorities to do their utmost to assist the national team in the upcoming games. She also said her government attaches great importance to sporting events involving athletes with physical or intellectual disabilities, promising to make greater efforts to promote such events in Taiwan in the future.     [FULL STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 31, 2016
By: Jason Pan / Staff reporter

Taiwan’s coaches might have to juggle the lineup and improve the tactics for tomorrow’s international

friendly against Japan after the hosts were unable to find the net, falling to the visitors 2-0 at the Taipei Municipal Stadium on Monday.

Taiwan coach Satoshi Imai experimented with an unorthodox 4-6-0 formation on Monday, in which both sides fielded college-level players who are eligible for next year’s Universiade in Taipei.

However, Imai’s tactic of packing six midfielders in the center of the pitch in a bid to win possession and push attacks from deep failed to create the intended result.
In that first game of the Taiwan-Japan friendly series, co-organized with the Japan University Football Association, Japan captain Takuya Shigehiro opened the account with a long-range effort in the 38th minute.

Taiwan almost got an equalizer three minutes from the break, when midfielder Chen Chia-chun fed a cross to Lo Chih-hsien in the box, but Lo headed the ball just wide of the post.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/08/29
By: Sophia Yeh, Tang Pei-chun, Chen Yung-yu and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, Aug. 29 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said Monday at a meeting with Taiwan’s delegation to the Rio Olympics that the government plans to reform the country’s sports policy by amending the National Sports Act and coming up new regulations.

Outlining the reform plan, Tsai said the government will first promote organizational openness and transparency in all sports associations to allow more people to participate in their operations.

Second, it will push for greater professionalism in the sports sector by establishing a mechanism to select coaches and athletes based on the principles of openness, transparency and professionalism, Tsai said.

The president also said she hopes an independent arbitration task force will be formed to ensure the rights of athletes.     [FULL  STORY]

The Christian Times
Date: 28 August, 2016
By: Bayani Miguel Acebedo

Jeremy Lin’s breakout season was with New York Knicks in 2012 when the “Linsanity” hype started.

It has been a while since the NBA was struck with “Linsanity,” but Jeremy Lin is easily one of the most noticeable Asian players in the NBA. Other than basketball, Lin has also decided to showcase some of his other talents in Jay Chou’s music video “Turkish Ice Cream.”

The report comes from the Washington Post, and Chou’s music video will remind viewers of a little video by Korean singer PSY called “Gangnam Style.” Aside from the weird title, the video is chock-full of loud colors, cute boys dancing, and Jeremy Lin doing basketball things with Jay Chou. The video also showcases Lin playing classical music on a piano as Chou sits on top of it.

Audiences outside of Taiwan will remember Jay Chou as Kato in Seth Rogen’s “Green Hornet” reboot back in 2011. Though the movie was not met with good reviews from critics, Chou was praised for his martial arts skills, and some considered him to fit the role that Bruce Lee made popular quite well.     [FULL  STORY]

Gulf News
Date: August 28, 2016
By: Staff Report

Dubai: The UAE finished 32nd and 35th in the Asian Pacific Golf Confederation Junior Championship

at Sunrise Golf and Country Club in Taiwan last week.

Two teams of one girl and one boy competed in the 72 hole mixed team competition. The first UAE team consisted of Reema Al Heloo and Mohammad Al Hajeri, while the second involved Tara Al Marzooqi and Mohammad Abdullah Saeed.

South Korea won the event after a play-off, while Thailand and Chinese Taipei rounded off the top three. Over three rounds the UAE gained valuable experience playing against Japan, Guam, Papua New Guinea and Bangladesh.

“The UAE is thankful to have received an invite to participate in this championship.” said Khalid Mubarak Al Shamsi, secretary general of the Emirates Golf Federation and UAE national team manager.     [FULL  STORY]

Tasnim News Agency
Date: August, 28, 2016

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Bank Sarmayeh from Iran beat Taiwan Power in straight sets (25–21, 26–24, 25–

20) at the 2016 Asian Men’s Club Volleyball Championship in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar on Sunday.

The Iranian team will face Vietnamese Maseco Tphcm on Monday to book a place at the competition’s semi-final.

The Iranian team has already defeated Kazakhstan’s Altay VC (3-1), Malaysia (3-0), Hong Kong (3-0) and Japan’s Toyoda Gosei Trefuerza (3-1) respectively in group stage.

The final will be held on August 31. The awards presentation and closing ceremony will take place shortly after the final showdown.

Winner of the prestigious tournament will represent Asia at the FIVB Volleyball Men’s Club World Championship at Belo Horizonte and Betim in Brazil.     [SOURCE]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/08/26
By: Wu Che-hao and Elaine Hou

Taipei, Aug. 26 (CNA) The Taiwan International Dragon Boat Championships kicked off Friday in Changhua County, with a total of 196 teams from home and abroad vying for glory.

Taiwanese teams from Taipei and Changhua, as well as foreign teams from Japan, Hong Kong and the Philippines are competing in the three- day event, according to the organizers.

Changhua County Magistrate Wei Ming-ku (魏明谷) welcomed the teams to his county on Friday during the ceremonious launch of a dragon boat on the Fulu River in Lukang Township to open the championships.

In an effort to promote local tourism, he also encouraged the participants to explore the township, which he said is steeped in cultural heritage.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 27, 2016
By: Jason Pan / Staff reporter

Two Taiwanese tennis stars faced each other at the WTA Connecticut Open yesterday, with Chuang

Chia-jung defeating Hsieh Su-wei and gaining a measure of revenge for her untimely exit from the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games.
In their women’s doubles quarter-final at the Connecticut Tennis Center in New Haven, Chuang and Katerina Bondarenko of Ukraine defeated Hsieh and Andrea Petkovic of Germany 7-5, 1-6, 11-9.

Chuang and Bondarenko next face Hungary’s Timea Babos and Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova in the semi-finals.

Taiwan’s media played up the match between Chuang and Hsieh, billing it as a game of “former friends turned adversaries,” after their relationship reportedly deteriorated following Hsieh’s decision to withdraw from the Rio Olympics.

Hsieh, who was Chuang’s doubles partner for the Games, announced her withdrawal from the Olympics following a row with officials from the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee on Aug. 4.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 26, 2016
By: AFP, LOS ANGELES

Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun on Wednesday defeated Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman in straight sets 6-4,

6-0 to reach the quarter-finals of the ATP Tour’s Winston-Salem Open.

Lu, who is into his fourth consecutive Winston-Salem quarter-final, fired nine aces and did not face a break point in the 62-minute match in North Carolina.

“Fortunately I played really well on game points and on break points,” Lu was quoted as saying on the ATP Web site. “My serve was there when I needed it, and that helped me a lot today. I always seem to play very relaxed, very freely here. Maybe it is something that is missing for me in other tournaments, but I am able to find that feeling here.”

Lu next faces second-seeded Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain, who defeated Cyprus’ Marcos Baghdatis 4-6, 6-3, 6-1.

Top-seeded Richard Gasquet advanced to the quarter-finals with a 6-1, 6-3 win over French compatriot Stephane Robert.

Gasquet saved seven of eight break points and broke the unseeded Robert’s serve five times.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/08/24
By: Timothy Huang and Christie Chen

New York, Aug. 23 (CNA) Former New York Mets pitcher Nelson Figueroa, who spent two years playing for Taiwan’s Uni-President Lions, recalled his time in Taiwan on Tuesday and urged fellow Americans to visit the country for its tasty food and scenic views.

At a press event in New York on Tuesday to promote Taiwan Heritage Day at Citi Field, Figueroa fondly recalled Taiwan’s night market, tasty xiaolongbao — steamed pork dumplings filled with soup broth — as well as the hospitality of its people.

He urged New Yorkers and other Americans to visit Taiwan to enjoy its beaches, historic cities and urban life.

Figueroa, who currently works as a pregame and postgame analyst for SportsNet New York (SNY), visited Taiwan in July at the invitation of the Tourism Bureau to shoot a series of videos to promote Taiwan’s tourism attractions.     [FULL  STORY]