A press conference on April 9 announced the event, which will be held at the Taoyuan Arena from July 20-22

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/04/09
By: Duncan DeAeth, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – It was announced on April 9 that the city of Taoyuan will host the

2018 Sumo World and Asian Championships this year, to be held from July 20 – July 22 at the Taoyuan Arena.

A press conference was held on April 9 where representatives from the city, International Sumo Federation, and the Taiwanese Sumo Association, all signed contracts and publicly announced the event. It is expected that the tournament will attract over 250 athletes from 30 countries to participate.

The city of Taoyuan, and the Taiwan Sumo Association placed their bid last year along with many other countries to host the 2018 tournament during an International Sumo League council event in Poland last year.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/04/09
By: Lee Chin-wei and Ko Lin

Taipei, April 9 (CNA) Taiwanese archers clinched one gold and one silver medal in the

recurve finals of a 2018 Asia Cup World Ranking Tournament in Manila on Monday.

Lo Hsiao-yuan (羅筱媛), who was competing in the recurve women’s event, beat Korean Kang Subin 6-0 in the final, taking three straight sets, 27-26, 25-22, and 27-26.

Each set consists of three arrows per archer, with the winner getting two points for the set. The first person to six wins.

In the men’s recurve final, Taiwan’s Tang Chih-chun (湯智鈞) fell to South Korean Kim Kanghyun 6-4. The two were tied at 4-4 after each winning a set and tying two others before Kim prevailed in the decider 29-28.
[FULL  STORY]

UNASSAILABLE: Sending down four aces and winning 58 of the 89 points contested, Hsieh Cheng-peng and Peng Hsien-yin took only 56 minutes to defeat the Iranians 6-0, 6-4

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 09, 2018
By: Dave Carroll  /  Staff reporter

Taiwan yesterday retained their Davis Cup Asia-Oceania Group II status by thrashing Iran

4-0 on the hard courts at the Taipei Tennis Center.

After the host cruised into a 2-0 lead on Saturday after the singles rubbers, Hsieh Cheng-peng and Peng Hsien-yin took just 56 minutes to defeat Amirvala Madanchi and Ashkan Shokoofi 6-0, 6-4 in the doubles rubber to move into an unassailable 3-0 lead in the relegation playoff.

Hsieh and Peng did not face a single break point against the Iranian pairing while converting four of eight, sending down four aces and winning 58 of the 89 points contested.

In the first reverse single rubber, Hsu Yu-hsiou, the 19-year-old Taiwanese world No. 1,971, rallied from a set down to defeat Iranian world No. 1,349 Shahin Khaledan 4-6, 6-1, 10-8 in 1 hour, 25 minutes.

Hsu saved four of five break points and converted two of four, winning 70 of the 129 points contested.

Taiwan skipper Chiang Jinn-yen and Iran captain Saeid Ahmadvand then agreed not to contest the second scheduled reverse singles rubber between Yang Tsung-hua and Madanchi.    [FULL  STORY]

Incumbent leadership questions eligibility of outside candidate

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/04/05
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – World soccer’s top body, FIFA, is sending a delegation to Taiwan

to look at a leadership dispute within the local football association, reports said Thursday.

Amid government legislation to make sports associations more democratic, the Chinese Taipei Football Association (CTFA, 中華民國足球協會) has been wracked by differences about the eligibility of candidates for its chairmanship.

At the center of the dispute was Chiou I-jen (邱義仁), chairman of the Taiwan-Japan Relations Association and a veteran politician of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party.

The CTFA was to have held elections for a new head on March 17, but the incumbent leadership rejected Chiou’s candidacy as invalid because he was not a member of the association in the first place.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/04/04
By: Chiu Kuo-chiang and Kuan-lin Liu

Beijing, April 4 (CNA) The second round of the Cross-Strait Students Baseball League opened in Beijing, China on Wednesday, featuring 20 teams from universities across the Taiwan Strait.

The three-day second round is being held at Fengtai Baseball Field and will also feature games for elementary, middle school and high school teams.

The teams were decided based on preliminary qualifiers that took place separately in Taiwan and China to determine the nine Taiwanese and 11 Chinese teams reaching this stage of the competition.

The second round will continue in Taichung in July, with the finals taking place at the end of the year, set tentatively in Shenzhen.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/04/02
By: Lung Po-an and Ko Lin

Taipei, April 2 (CNA) Kaohsiung signed a contract Monday with the International e-Sports

Federation (IeSF) to host this year’s annual Esports World Championship in November.

The contract was signed by Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊), Chinese Taipei e-Sports Association (CTeSA) Director Cheng Pao-ching (鄭寶清), and IeSF board member Colin Webster.

Chen said the city was well prepared to host the event for the first time after having successfully hosted the 2009 World Games, an international multisport event held every four years.

Esports have already become one of the most highly watched sports in the world, and they will be featured at the Asian Games in 2018 and 2022, she said.    [FULL STORY]

#NBArank Game Changers: Jeremy Lin ranks 75th as ESPN’s 2018 most influential players ever

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/03/30
By: Jane Lau,Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Jeremy Lin (林書豪) ranks 75th on the list of ESPN’s 100

greatest NBA players of 2018.

Standing behind Steve Kerr and Connie Hawkin, Jeremy Lin continues to attract the media’s limelight as one of the top NBA influential players.

Taking the NBA by storm in 2012, the Asian-American player holds an prominent role in proving professional basketball talent of Asian heritage. Jeremy Lin remains as a favored and crowd-pleasing player in the field, and he claims that there is “more to be done, more to come”.

Jeremy Lin has impressive results on the court, and off the court, he serves as a representative of culture to help make the league more diversified.    [SOURCE]

Tainan is transforming into a baseball city with a US$90 million eco-friendly project

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/03/28
By: Alicia Nguyen, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Taiwan proposes Tainan city as a permanent host for the under-12 baseball world championship sanctioned by the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) in an attempt to introduce Taiwan to the world, reported the Liberty Times.

Despite China’s pressure, Taiwan promotes itself as an international venue for the sports tournament. The island nation has recently released a promotion video striving to be a long-term host for the baseball championship.

In the video, Premier William Lai features as the main spokesperson along with the Taiwanese flag to introduce baseball culture and proposed Tainan becoming the permanent host of the baseball world championship. Lai served as two-term mayor of the city before becoming premier late last year.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/03/27
By: Joseph Yeh

Taipei, March 27 (CNA) Hung Kuo-chang (洪國展) will become one of the first two visually

impaired runners from Taiwan to participate in the world-renowned Boston Marathon in April, Hung told CNA Tuesday.

In a ceremony held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) in Taipei, Hung was officially presented with a Republic of China (Taiwan) national flag to carry during the marathon by Judy Wong (翁瑛敏), head of the ministry’s Department of NGO International Affairs.

According to MOFA, Hung applied for a national flag to carry during the upcoming event.

Local media reports identified the other runner as Lu Kuan-lin (呂冠霖).    [FULL  STORY]