Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/12/19
By: Lung Po-an and Frances Huang

Taipei, Dec. 19 (CNA) Taiwanese tennis player Chan Yung-jan (詹詠然) said Tuesday that

she and Andrea Hlavackova of the Czech Republic will team up as doubles partners for the new season.

On her Facebook page, Chan said she was very excited about the new partnership with the fifth seeded Hlavackova, following the recent retirement of Swiss tennis legend Martina Hingis who had been Chan’s doubles partner for most of 2017.

“I’m happy to release this announcement with you before the new season starts,” Chan wrote. “As you know with this incredible season, next year is gonna be a new chapter, Andrea Hlavackova is gonna be my new partner start from the first week of 2018 in Brisbane.”

Chan will head to Brisbane on Dec. 25 to prepare for the 2018 Brisbane International.
[FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-12-17

About 27,000 runners braved the brisk 11 degrees C weather early on Sunday morning to

participate in the annual Taipei Marathon.

Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je was on hand at the starting line to offer encouragement before the race. He spoke about his hopes for the future of the event, saying that the city was hoping to receive the highest level of certification for the marathon within 2-3 years. The mayor said he also hoped it could be recognized as one of the most unique marathons, with a course that passes by the four existing gates of the old city wall (which is no longer standing).

This year’s Taipei marathon included more than 3,200 international participants, hailing from a total of 51 countries and areas.    [SOURCE]

STILL GOT IT: While the Elephants’ starting pitcher from 1990 only threw against one batter, Tu Fu-ming of the Lions threw an impressive three outs to close the first inning

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 18, 2017
By: Jason Pan  /  Staff reporter

Fans cheered their heroes at the Legends Games this weekend, which saw retired players

from the President Lions defeat the Brother Elephants 5-2, while the Mercury Tigers battled for a 11-11 draw with the Weichuan Dragons.

Proceeds for the event are to be donated to two high-school teams in Taitung County.

Hundreds of spectators, evenly divided between the blue-clad fans of the Tigers and the Dragons’ red army, filled Taipei’s Tianmu Stadium for Saturday’s game.

Legendary power hitter “Brother Chiu” Lin Chung-chiu, pitcher Kang Ming-chuan and outfielder Chen Kai-fa led the Tigers’ all-star cast, while the Dragons featured Huang Ping-yang, Yang Chieh-jen and Lo Shih-hsin.    [FULL  STORY]

Title to be contested by 16 contestants

Taiwan News 
Date: 2017/12/15
By: Matthew Strong,Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The finals of the Street Fighter V clashes launched by the Zowie

division of Taiwanese hardware company BenQ will be held from Saturday noon in Taipei.

The competition pits 16 champions from all over the world against each other, with one Taiwanese player, named as Brook/WildTaiwanese, defending the colors of the host nation. At stake is a main prize of US$35,000 (NT$1 million).

The competition, which forms the culmination of a long series of contests, will include “fights” of one against one, and of teams of three against each other, the organizers said.

The event takes place from 12 noon Saturday on the 12th floor of the Syntrend Building in the heart of Taipei’s electronics district and is free. Proceedings will be streamed on Twitch in Chinese at TWFighter and in English at ZOWIEFighter.    [SOURCE]

First defeat for World No.1 at this year’s BWF World Superseries in Dubai

Taiwan News 
Date: 2017/12/14
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The world’s No.1 woman badminton player, Tai Tzu-ying (戴資

穎), lost for the first time at the BWF World Superseries in Dubai Thursday, to No.6-ranked Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand.

The 23-year-old from Kaohsiung became a star in her native Taiwan after participating in the 2017 Taipei Summer Universiade last August.

At the World Superseries, she unexpectedly lost 18-21, 17-21 to her Thai rival, less than 24 hours after defeating Chen Yufei of China.

In the All England Open final last March, Tai still defeated Ratchanok, but in Dubai, she pushed her first game until the score was 17-18, but she failed to improve on the situation.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/12/14
By: Joseph Yeh 

“You have the ability in yourself to find the positive in a negative situation you go through, I did it, that doesn’t mean you cannot do it,” Isaiah Austin, a professional basketball player diagnosed with a genetic disorder, told CNA in a recent interview.

“We are all humans, we are going to face difficulty each and every day in our lives. Just look at the glass half full instead of half empty,” he added.

The 7-foot-1 Austin is more than qualified to make such comment.

He was a college all-star at Baylor University and thought to be a likely first-round pick in the 2014 NBA draft until he was diagnosed just days before the draft with Marfan syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that affects the heart.    [FULL  STORY]

The Traffic Division of Taipei City Police Department said that traffic control will be implemented along the race route of Taipei Marathon on December 17, urging road users to make a detour plan or take Taipei Metro 

Taiwan News  
Date: 2017/12/12
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)—The Traffic Division of Taipei City Police Department said in a

news release Tuesday that traffic control will be implemented along the race route of Taipei Marathon on December 17, urging road users to make a detour plan or take Taipei Metro instead.

Taipei Marathon 2017 will take place between 5 a.m. and 1 p.m. on December 17, and the starting time is 6:30 a.m., the traffic division said. The number of the total participants of the road race is 27,000, according to the division.

The time and duration of traffic control in different areas along the race route will be different according to the proceeding of the race. A map of traffic control time is provided by the division.

The 42.195-kilometer race will start at Taipei City Hall and go though the following streets: Shifu Rd., Xinyi Rd., Songzhi Rd., Songgao Rd., Yixian Rd., Renai Rd., Xinyi Rd., Hangzhou S. Rd., Aiguo E. Rd.m Aiguo W. Rd., Zhonghua Rd., Zhongxiao W. Rd., Chongqing S. Rd., Ketagalan Blvd., Zhongshan S. Rd., Zhongshan N. Rd., Beian Rd., Minshui Rd., Lequan 1st Rd., Tiding Blvd., General MaCarthur Bridge #2, Tayou Rd., Keelung Rd.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/12/11
By: Joseph Yeh, staff reporter

The goal of helping Taiwan’s national soccer team to advance into the world’s top 100

ranking would be “easily achievable,” given more government and private sector support for a better environment for soccer development, Gary White, the team’s head coach, said Monday.

Speaking to CNA, White, the English head coach of the national squad, said the goal set by Taiwan’s Chinese Taipei Football Association (CTFA) to advance the team’s world ranking to the Top 100 in five years is “easily achievable.”

“We can do it in two years,” he said.

But he also said that the goal is reachable only under the premise that the team is given “more support from the government and other people.”    [FULL  STORY]