Focus Taiwan
Date: 12/10/2020
By: Chen Yi-hsuan, Yeh Su-ping and Chiang Yi-ching

Taipei, Dec. 10 (CNA) The mayors of Taipei and New Taipei on Thursday officially signed a contract to host the 2025 World Masters Games, an international sporting competition for athletes over 30 years old.

Taipei City Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and New Taipei City Mayor Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜) formalized the agreement in a video call with Kai Holm and Jens V. Holm, who are, respectively, the president and CEO of the International Masters Games Association (IMGA), which organizes the event.

The games, which are held every four years, are open to athletes over the age of 30 in a wide range of sports, competing as individuals rather than part of a national team.

Taipei and New Taipei were confirmed as the hosts in October, edging out the French capital Paris and the Australian city of Perth for the right to host the 2025 edition of the games, which are scheduled for May 17-30.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 12/06/2020
By: Lung Po-an, Huang Chiao-wen and Kay Liu

New Taipei, Dec. 6 (CNA) The biennial National Athletics Championships, which took place on Friday and Saturday in New Taipei, saw several record breaking performances by Taiwanese athletes.

Javelin thrower Cheng Chao-tsun (鄭兆村), who has already secured his ticket to the Tokyo Olympics next year, broke the championship record to take home a gold medal with a throw of 85.54 meters.

The 27-year-old Cheng said his coach would only allow him three throws because of a sore left foot caused by jogger's heel and he only took two of those.

Javelin thrower Cheng Chao-tsun. CNA photo Dec. 5, 2020

The winning throw was a significant improvement on his recent efforts of 79.48 meters and 77.02 meters at events in October and November, respectively.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 12/05/2020
By: Lung Po-an and Kay Liu

Taipei, Dec. 5 (CNA) World No. 6 female archer Lei Chien-ying (雷千瑩) took home NT$6.3 million (US$223,272) for her achievements since 2019 at the Sports Administration's annual Guo Guang awards Friday, the highest of any individual, from a total of NT$47.4 million.

Lei received the money for winning two gold medals at the World Archery Championships held in the Netherlands in June 2019 — one in the individual recurve event and the other in the women's recurve team event — and for winning a silver medal in the compound mixed team event at the Asian Archery Championship in November 2019 in Thailand.

Lei's gold medals also helped secure both her and the team a place in the now postponed Tokyo Olympics, which is scheduled to start on July 23, 2021.

The 30-year-old archer said she will discuss with her family how to use the money, but part of it will be definitely go to charity.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date:  Dec 05, 2020
By: Jason Pan / Staff reporter

A hoops war begins this weekend as the SBL tips off at New Taipei City’s Sinjhuang Gymnasium, ahead of the rival P.League+, which begins at the Changhua County Stadium on Dec. 19.

The SBL openers today see Taiwan Bank take on Pauian Archiland at 3pm, followed by the marquee matchup at 5:30pm between defending champions Taiwan Beer and last season’s losing finalists the Yulon Luxgen Dinos.

Jeoutai Technology, the fifth SBL team, formerly known as Kinmen Kaoliang, play their first game tomorrow against Taiwan Bank, also in Sinjhuang.

Among the new foreign players unveiled this week, the most prominent is former NBA player Rakeem Christmas of the Dinos.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 12/02/2020
By: Huang Chiao-wen and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, Dec. 2 (CNA) Taiwan's Lin Yun-ju (林昀儒) remained 7th in the world in men's singles and Cheng I-ching (鄭怡靜) 8th in women's singles in the latest International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) rankings released Tuesday.

All ITTF events were canceled starting in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and its world rankings were frozen in April, but tournament play resumed in November with three prestigious ITTF events: the Women's World Cup, Men's World Cup and ITTF Finals.

Lin and Cheng reached the quarterfinals in their respective World Cup tournaments and ITTF Finals events, helping maintain their rankings.

In the latest ITTF men's world rankings, China's Fan Zhendong (樊振東), Xu Xin (許昕), Ma Long (馬龍) remained the world's top three male players, while China's Lin Gaoyuan (林高遠) was ranked fourth and Japan's Tomokazu Harimoto fifth.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 03, 2020
By: Staff writer, with CNA

Taiwan’s Lin Yun-ju remained the world No. 7 male table tennis player and Cheng I-ching the world No. 8 female player in the latest rankings released by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) on Tuesday.

All ITTF events were canceled starting in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic and world rankings were frozen in April, but tournament play resumed last month with the Women’s World Cup, the Men’s World Cup and the ITTF Finals.

Lin and Cheng reached the quarter-finals in the World Cup and ITTF Finals, helping to maintain their rankings.

In the men’s rankings, China’s Fan Zhendong, Xu Xin and Ma Long retained the world’s top three spots, while China’s Lin Gaoyuan was ranked fourth and Japan’s Tomokazu Harimoto fifth.
[FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 01, 20208
By: Jason Pan / Staff reporter

Taiwan Steel on Sunday celebrated with the Taiwan Football Premier League trophy, despite a 3-1 loss in their final match of the season, while Taipower claimed second place and Tatung’s Ange Samuel scored on a breakaway to claim the Golden Boot with 20 goals.

Ahead of all four of Sunday’s matches players, coaches and fans observed a minute’s silence prior to kickoff in honor of Argentine great Diego Maradona, who died aged 60 on Wednesday last week, following a directive received from FIFA.

Already assured the title, Taiwan Steel manager Lo Chi-chong fielded a second-string team against defending champions Tatung in Taoyuan.

Lo used Chen Wei-jen as a lone striker, while leading scorer Marc Fenelus was moved into a midfield role. Third-choice goalkeeper Jiang Zhi-hsien was also given a start.   [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 11/29/2020
By: Kuo Chu-chen and Kay Liu

Taipei, Nov. 29 (CNA) A total of 220 senior citizens in Pingtung County with an average age of 74 competed in a street dance battle on Saturday in the county government's annual campaign to improve care for the elderly.

"Street dance is not something only young people do," said Pingtung Magistrate Pan Men-an (潘孟安) at the event held at Liudui Hakka Cultural Park under the county's "the Silverthreads" community care campaign.

He said he was impressed by the seniors, some of whom were aged up to their late 80s, because they managed to finish two hours of training every week for 12 weeks to get ready for the dance battle.

After the 220 people in 12 teams, each paired with a handful of youngsters, tackled dance styles of hip hop, locking, popping or breaking, a group from the county's Linbian Township won first place.   [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 26, 2020
By: AFP, DOHA

Beijing Guoan have one foot in the last 16 of the AFC Champions League after a convincing 3-1 win against a rusty Melbourne Victory side on Tuesday extended their perfect record in Group E to three wins in three matches.

Another Australian side, Perth Glory, also experienced an embarrassing defeat, going down 2-1 to Ulsan Hyundai after the South Koreans struck twice in the dying minutes of their Group F game.

Also in Group F, Shanghai Shenhua improved their chances of qualification with their second win in three matches, edging past FC Tokyo 1-0, courtesy of a late penalty.

However, it was Bruno Genesio’s Beijing outfit who sent out a strong warning to their rivals in the tournament by following up on their win over FC Seoul last week with another impressive performance in Doha, where the tournament’s eastern zone matches are being played after a nine-month break due to the COVID-19 pandemic.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date:  Nov 24, 2020
By:. Jason Pan / Staff reporter

Taiwan Steel on Sunday defeated Hang Yuan 3-1 to clinch the Taiwan Football Premier League (TFPL) title with a match to spare after Taipower were held to a 1-1 draw by National University of Sport.

The victory saw Tainan achieve the rare achievement of being “double champions” after the Uni-President Lions baseball team won the CPBL championship earlier this month against the CTBC Brothers.

Turks and Caicos striker Marc Fenelus powered a header into the top corner to give the league leaders an early lead over Hang Yuan in New Taipei City.

Just before the hour mark, Hang Yuan defender Hsu Yi fouled Haitian forward Benchy Astama inside the penalty area and the referee awarded Taiwan Steel a spot-kick.    [FULL STORY]