Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/12/15
By: William Yen

Taipei, Dec. 15 (CNA) A winter basketball tournament for over 30 teams of Filipino players was launched in Taichung on Sunday, with hundreds of people gathering at a city park for the opening ceremony and to watch the first two games.

The opening ceremony of the CIASI Taichung Winter Basketball League Season 1 featured a march past, during which the teams, comprised of Filipino migrant workers and students, were judged on best uniforms and best muses.

The Taiping Stars basketball team, made up entirely of Filipino workers from the Taichung area, won the trophy for "Best in Uniform," with their clean and sharp, white-purple jerseys.

"The flags of both the Philippines and Taiwan are printed on the upper left of our jersey to symbolize the unity of Filipinos and Taiwanese," said the team's acting manager, who asked to be called Freddie. "We aim for unity not just in sports but also while at work."    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 16, 2019
By: AFP, SHANGHAI

Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying won her first game yesterday, but lost the next two and the final at the BWF World

Tour Finals in China, while world No. 1 Kento Momota fought back from a game down to win his 11th badminton title of the year.

In the women’s final, China’s Chen Yufei roared back from a game down to defeat Tai 12-21, 21-12, 21-17.

The result means Chen is to replace Tai as world No. 1 in the rankings.

Tai led the whole way in the first game, but surged in the second with five consecutive points after trailing 0-1. Tai’s push to reassert herself was hampered by mistakes.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/12/08
By:  Central News Agency\

Wang Kuan-hung (王冠閎) on Saturday became the first Taiwanese to win a medal at the U.S. Open Swimming Championships when he finished second in the men's 200-meter butterfly competition.

Wang, 17, a student from Taipei Municipal Chien Kuo high school, clocked 1:55.82 in the race, to take the silver medal. The gold medal was won by American Luca Urlando in a record-breaking time of 1:55.60, while Jonathan Gomez of Columbia took bronze with a time of 1:56.90.

Although Wang failed to break his personal best of 1:55.72, the result was better than expected, said his coach Huang Chih-yung (黃智勇).    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 01 December, 2019
By: Natalie Tso

Pingjen High School won the Black Panther National Senior High School Baseball Championships on Sunday. Players from the school in Taoyuan County, northern Taiwan, threw their coach Wu Po-hung up in the air as they celebrated their victory. They beat Ku Pao Home Economics and Commercial High School 3-1 to win the championship. 

Coach Wu said that pitcher Wu Ping-en played a key role in the victory and was awarded Most Valuable Player for his efforts. At the end of the 8th inning, Pingjen was leading 3-1.
[FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 02 December, 2019
By: Leslie Liao

Ting Hua-tien has become the first Taiwanese gymnast to have a move named after themselves[/caption] The International Gymnastics Federation has officially recognized and named a move after Taiwanese gymnast Ting Hua-tien. Ting is a rising star in Taiwan’s athletic community; she’s the country’s first female gymnast to qualify for the Olympics in 51 years.

Watch out 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Taiwan has a gymnastics star heading your way! Ting Hua-tien is only 17 years old, but she’s the first female Taiwanese gymnast to qualify for the Olympics since 1968 in Mexico. Now, she’s coming armed with another superlative: she has a move named after her. That makes her the first Taiwanese gymnast with that honor.      

The move is called the "Ting Hua-tien split leap to ring position with 180 degree turn," and this is what it looks like….

Ting jumps into the air, and does the splits while turning mid-air. The International Gymnastics Federation has officially added the move to the Code of Points for women's gymnastics.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/11/30
By: William Yen

Taipei, Nov. 30 (CNA) The Taipei Fubon Braves started slowly but eventually blew past Hong Kong Eastern 102-89 in Taipei on Saturday to improve their record to 3-1 in the ASEAN Basketball League (ABL).

The Braves trailed for much of the first half, falling behind 37-30 as American forward George Kell landed bucket after bucket for the team from Hong Kong.

But the Taipei team suddenly woke up, running off 10 straight points, culminating in a lay-up by forward Lin Meng-Hsueh (林孟學) and a three-pointer by former NBA star O.J. Mayo to give the Braves a 40-37 lead with around eight minutes left in the half.

The Braves never looked back after that and widened their lead to 98-84 with just under two minutes after a lay-up by Canadian center Gursimran-Sing Bhullar.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/11/27
By: Long Po-an and Chiang Yi-ching

Taipei, Nov. 27 (CNA) Seventeen-year-old Ting Hua-tien (丁華恬) has become the first Taiwanese gymnast to have a gymnastics move named after her, the Chinese Taipei Gymnastics Association said Monday.

The International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) has officially added the "Ting Hua-Tien," described as a "split leap to ring position with 1/2 (180 degree) turn," to the Code of Points for women's gymnastics, the association said.

The element was assigned a degree of difficulty of D on a scale from A to J, with J ranked the most difficult.

Ting performed the move, which is a modified version of an existing element, in her floor routine at the Artistic Gymnastics World Cup in Melbourne earlier this year.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/11/25
By: Lin Yun-ju

Taipei, Nov. 25 (CNA) Taiwanese teenager Lin Yun-ju (林昀儒) was crushed by his Chinese opponent

in the men's singles final at the T2 Diamond table tennis tournament in Singapore on Sunday and had to settle for second place.

The 18-year old Taiwanese, who came under the spotlight after he won the T2 Diamond Malaysia title in July, lost 0-4 (9-11, 5-11, 8-11, 6-11) to World No. 2 Xu Xin (許昕) of China.

Lin put up a good fight but was forced to stay on the defensive throughout the match, as he struggled to keep pace with his opponent's array of attacking shots.

The 29-year old Chinese player remained dominant to the very end, knocking out Lin in four straight games to win the Diamond title in Singapore.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 26, 2019
By: Grant Dexter  /  Staff reporter, with CNA

Taiwan’s Lin Yun-ju was outclassed in the final of the men’s singles at the T2 Diamond Singapore table

tennis tournament, losing in straight games to Xu Xin of China on Sunday.

Xu won 11-9, 11-5, 11-8, 11-6 and while Lin showed some fight, he was forced to stay on the defensive throughout the match as he struggled to keep pace with his opponent’s array of attacking shots.

Despite starting with a service error, Xu generally held a one or two-point lead through the first game. Lin tied it at 9-9, but the Chinese player won the next two points to seize the initiative.

Lin took a 3-0 lead in the second game, but gave that up with a string of errors. A big rally saw Lin send Xu well back, giving the Taiwanese an opening to smash a winner, but more errors let Xu run away 11-5 to give him firm control of the match.    [FULL  STORY]