Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/03/12
By: Lung Po-an and Ko Lin

Taipei, March 12 (CNA) Taiwanese badminton player Chou Tien-chen (周天成) defended

his championship title Sunday, beating Ng Ka Long (伍家朗) of Hong Kong 2-1 in the men’s singles final of the 2018 Yonex German Open in Mulheim.

Chou, ranked eighth in the world and a top-seeded contender in the German Open, got past the tournament’s 25th-seeded Ng in three games, 21-19, 18-21, 21-18.

The two players fought a tight battle, going back and forth until Chou eventually won two straight points to end the first game at 21-19.

But the close contention did not end there, and Ng managed to make a final push after 17-17 to tie Chou at 1-1.    [FULL  STORY]

Challenges make every success memorable. 

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/03/09
By: Mabel Neo, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Liao Yan-jun (廖晏均), representing Taipei Municipal Lishan

Senior High School, has met the qualifying criteria for the 2018 Asian Games. She clocked in her new personal best of 11.67 seconds in the Women’s 100 m event in the Taipei Spring Athletic Open (台北市春季全國田徑公開賽) held on March 2.

Twenty-year-old Liao’s route to the Asian Games wasn’t an easy feat. Athletic coaches who know her personally know this best. Can you imagine putting your heart and soul into the preparation of something for so long, and your dreams get shattered? She is always facing obstacles on a consistent basis, and everyone’s heart goes out to her. To put it plainly, she has always been just a foot away from participating in international events despite being the gold medalist for numerous competitions.

In 2016, Liao’s 100m and 200m records could have bagged the gold medals for these two events in the Asian Under-20 Athletic Championships. But the qualifying criteria were marked higher in that year. Therefore, she was not in the National Athletic Team Squad.

What came as a bigger blow for Liao was the Summer Universiade held in Taipei last year. She was not chosen into the 4*100 relay team squad as she had yet to obtain her University Enrollment Status, thus making her ineligible for the event. She broke down after receiving the bad news. But she bounced back soon enough and focused on preparing for the National Games in Yilan County in October 2017.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 10, 2018
By: Dave Carroll  /  Staff reporter

The reunited Chan sisters on Thursday advanced to the second round of the doubles at

the BNP Paribas Open, while fellow Taiwanese Hsieh Su-wei set up a second-round singles clash with Spanish 27th seed Carla Suarez Navarro when her German opponent, Carina Witthoeft, retired with an injury.

The second-seeded Chan sisters, Hao-ching and Latisha, took just 65 minutes to see off the challenge of Latvian top-20 singles specialists Jelena Ostapenko and Anastasija Sevastova 6-2, 6-3 at Indian Wells in California.

The Taiwanese duo saved five of seven break points and converted five of 13, winning 56 of the 98 points contested.

“Today is our first match [together] after a long time, but I think it was a great match,” Latisha Chan told the WTA Web site.

“It was pretty aggressive and strong, and then we were strong when we had to [be]. There were quite a few deuces and I’m glad that we made it at the end,” she    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/03/02
By: Lee Chin-wei and William Yen

Taipei, March 2 (CNA) Taiwan’s first Asian Football Confederation (AFC) certified

professional club team, Hang Yuen FC, will be the first Taiwanese team to participate in the 2018 AFC Cup.

Hang Yuen has been drawn in the tournament’s Group I, which also includes Benfica de Macau, North Korea’s 4.25 SC and Hwaebul SC. Hang Yuen will face Benfica de Macau March 7 in Macau.

Hang Yuen coach Hung Ching-huai (洪慶懷) said the matches will be tough, but added that the team has an age and speed advantage.

“Even though if every game will be hard, our only objective is to strive to win,” Hung said.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/03/01
By: Joseph Yeh, CNA staff reporter

Baseball may be Taiwan’s national pastime, but as in most countries where the game is

played, it has remained almost exclusively a game for men.

Taiwan’s first women’s baseball team was not founded until early in the 21st century, in 2001, almost a century later than the creation of its first men’s team during Japanese colonial rule in 1903.

Today, 17 years later, three pioneers are hoping to make baseball an even more viable option for female athletes in Taiwan after being signed to play in the world’s only professional baseball league for women — the Japan Women’s Baseball League (JWBL).

They are pitcher/infielder Hsieh Yu-ying (謝鈺瀅) and outfielder Shen Chia-wen (沈嘉文), who will play for the Kyoto Flora, and pitcher/outfielder Tseng Chi (曾琪), who will join the Aichi Dione.    [FULL  STORY]

Traffic restrictions also in force for rehearsal on March 6

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/02/27
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Taoyuan will face a general rehearsal on March 6 for the Tour de

Taiwan stage scheduled to cycle through the city on March 12, with traffic restrictions valid on both days.

The March 11-15 cycling race will pass through 10 of the city’s districts and enter the grounds of its Agriculture Fair as well, the Liberty Times reported Tuesday.

The itinerary will take the cyclists from the Taoyuan City Government building to the coastline and then back inland up to Jiaobanshan Park in the Fuxing District for a total distance of about 124 kilometers, the organizers said.

More than 200 participants from 23 teams and 30 countries are registered to take part, including six local champions, the city government said.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/02/24
By: Kuan-lin Liu and Lee Chin-wei

Taipei, Feb. 24 (CNA) A Taiwanese women’s table tennis team suffered a crushing defeat

in the quarterfinals of the 2018 Team World Cup in London on Friday, during which they faced off against the North Korean women’s team.

In a best-of-five-match encounter, the team from Taiwan proceeded to lose three matches in a row, the exact opposite of how they performed the day before in the competition against Australia that won them a spot in the quarterfinals.

Taiwan’s Chen Szu-yu (陳思羽), Cheng Hsien-tzu (鄭先知) and Cheng I-ching (鄭怡靜) played for the team in a doubles and two singles matches.

Chen and Cheng Hsien-tzu kicked off the doubles match, playing against North Korea’s Kim Nam-hae and Cha Hyo-sim.   [FULL  STORY]