World Gymnastics Championships

This year the World Gymnastic Championships were held in Belgium. Taiwan sent a team of three males and two females to the event and here are two videos of their performance. Thanks to the wonderful piibunina for recording these gymnasts.

This is Lo Yu Ju on the floor.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AziJegJAiw

This is Chen Yu Chun on the balance beam. This was Taiwan's best showing as she managed a top 60 finish on the event.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-tD7w3pSn8

Analysis:
Really impressed with Chen on the balance beam. She has sufficient difficulty as all of her acrobatic elements are rated D or higher. She needs to work on her leaps (greater than 180 degrees) and keep her toes more pointed throughout the routine. Also she could work on connecting some of her element such that her start score is higher.

As for Lo, her piano music is really endearing. She needs to be able to do four tumbling passes instead of three in order to improve. On her second pass where she leaps out of her front salto, the free leg needs to be higher in order to gain the connection bonus. Of most concern is her last pass where she does a 2.5 twists. In the video, it shows that she was to take a step sideways when landing. This is not good as it makes the knee susceptible to major injuries like ACL tears.

Overall, these are really solid performances for Taiwan who doesn't have a strong gymnastics background and there's definitely room for improvement.

NBA Season has begun

Jeremy Lin has done really solid so far. He is averaging around 18 points per game and his team the Houston Rockets are now 7-4. Jeremy's assist to turnover ratio is a bit high (around 5:3.5), so there's always room to improve!

By the way, can you spot the error in this article?

http://focustaiwan.tw/news/apst/201311170024.aspx


Answer:

"He was the second Asian American to win this honor after Yao Ming of China. "

Ummm....Yao Ming is not American.

Cool Montage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEQaVGydME0&list=WL72AAE1F10C860A3D

Really Liked this montage Taiwanese TV had for the 2012 Olympics last year. Most of the athletes are listed and have a picture competing. Notable ones missing are Tennis player Chuang Chia-Jung, Sailor Chang Hao, and all of the swimmers!

My Reaction to IOC's Decision to Potentially Drop Wrestling

The IOC executive board decided to put wrestling on a voting block with six other sports to decide which one will be on the 2020 Olympic program. Sports that were also close to being expelled were canoeing, modern pentathlon, taekwondo, and field hockey.  Other sports mentioned by the media to be in trouble were badminton, fencing, and cycling.

Since wrestling is not a traditional sport in Taiwan, I don't really have any strong feelings about this decision. I do feel puzzled about why wrestling and it does have historical ties to the Olympics. This sport holds true to the statement "higher, faster, stronger."

My strongest reactions are to some of the online comments people have posted. Nothing against wrestling but some of the comments are just plain idiotic. Here are some example:

"They choose curling over wrestling."

-Um…..we're talking about the summer Olympics not the winter Olympics. Curling wasn't even talked about at the executive meeting.

"They choose synchronized swimming and rhythmic gymnastics over wrestling."

-This statement is misleading. The board was all about kicking out a sports federation. So kicking out rhythmic gymnastics would mean kicking out the FIG, which at the same time would be kicking out every gymnastics discipline. No FIG means no Gabby Douglas. Same thing for synchronized swimming which is under FINA. If FINA was dropped, all the swimming events would have been dropped. Yes that means no Michael Phelps or Ian Crocker.

"Nobody watches badminton and table tennis except for China."

-This statement is just so wrong on so many levels. Yes it is popular in China but it's also popular in the rest of Asia-Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Singapore…… Even countries such as Germany and Denmark have strong traditions in this sport.

Also these sports have professional tours. These tour stops have sponsors and television contracts.  In addition to World Championships, badminton has the prestigious Thomas and Uber Cup for team events. I could go on. Wrestling has no such thing.

"Badminton needs to be replace due to the 2012 scandal"

Wrestling has had its own scandals. From Muslims refusing to fight Israelis to a Swedish athlete dumping his medal onto the mat, wrestling needs to clean up too. Plus watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4SeUdCg2JU

Disgusting.

Plus the Great Britain team tried to hire a bunch of Ukrainians to wrestle for them in this past Olympics. It blew up in their face when one of them failed a drug test.

"Wrestling has had so many iconic moments like Rulon Gardner."

I say SO HAS EVERY SPORT! I know of touching stories in every sport.

And to those that say modern pentathlon and taekwondo needs to be replaced, these sports federation lobbied hard and have constantly changed the format of their competitions in an effort to become more relevant. Modern pentathlon has combined running and shooting into one event and taekwondo has added video replay. Wrestling has done no such thing. They refused to drop Greco-Roman when the IOC told them to and they have more weight classes for men than women.

Again I have no personal vendetta against wrestling but trying to justify one sport over another without doing proper information makes me frustrated.

So wrestling will be put up against sports like baseball/softball, roller sports, wake boarding, squash,  wushu, and rock climbing. I'm expecting an uproar from the wrestling community to get wrestling back in and I think they have a 70% chance of succeeding.

Sports that would benefit Taiwan would be baseball/softball and roller sports. Unfortunately, I don't think they'll succeed. The IOC just needs to raise the cap on the number of sports.

What's your thinking to the IOC's decision?

Taiwan Team Tennis

School has been busy for me :(

Last week the Taiwanese tennis teams competed in their respective Asian Divisonal zones. It was a rough week as the only match that Taiwan won was the women against South Korea. The Taiwanese men's team lost 5-0 to Australia and will face China in April in the loser's bracket.

With their win against South Korea, the women were able to stave off relegation and will be in the first tier in Asia again in 2014.

Of course none of the major stars played, so the results were to be expected. And I don't blame them. It was the New Years weekend. I wouldn't want to go to Kazakhstan (women) during the biggest holiday of the year.

Anyways, Su-Wei is playing in Qatar. Battling through injury she beat Tatjana Malek of Germany 6-4 6-4.

If you were planning on watching the WBC in Taiwan.....

Better buy your tickets now! Over 90% of the Chinese Taipei-Australia opening match have been sold. That figure is even higher for the South Korean game, and only 4000 tickets remain for the Netherlands tilt. The Taichung International Baseball stadium can fit around 20,000 fans.

The World Baseball Classic rounds in Taiwan run from March 2-5.

source: http://focustaiwan.tw/ShowNews/WebNews_Detail.aspx?Type=aALL&ID=201301210022

Tai Tzu Ying wins!

The eighteen year old badminton sensation capped off a fantastic week by winning the Malaysian Open. She defeated former world number one Tine Baun in the quarterfinals and then first seed Saina Nehwal, 2012 London bronze medalist, of India in the semifinals. In the finals against Yao Xue of China she won 21-17 21-14.

Go Tai Tzu Ying!

Links of her matches this week-
against Yao Xue http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ECbEZo7-X0
against Saina Nehwal http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7ckILCK8LA
against Tine Baun
part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-d2WCzbb0a4
part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBOoxrSLsJc

It's gold at AYOF today

At the Australian Youth Olympic Festival, Tsai Ming-Yen grabbed gold in the under 60 kg judo catogory. He won three matches in impressive fashion-three ippons! The 17 year old is certainly one to look out for in the future.

He was the 2011 Asian under 17 champion and also the under 17 world runner up in under 55 kg division. In addition as only a 16 year old, he won a bronze medal at the 2012 Asian Championships last year against more seasoned opponents. The winner Gwang-Hyeon Choi of Korea was 25 years old and had already qualified for the Olympics at that point.

Good Job Tsai Ming-Yen!

If you want to see him in action here he is at the semi of the under 17 world championships. Unfortunately the throw that ended the match occured out of camera.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxmG1X5Rw08

My Viewings of the Australian Open

Here's what has happened:
Best thing-Chan Yung-Jan winning her first round match against Daniela Hantuchova. Weird three set match but a win is a win. With the first round points and the added points from qualifying, Chan should make the Top 100 again.

Probably the worst thing- Chang Kai-Chen losing her first round doubles match. It wasn't that she and Yan Zi lost-it was just how badly they lost against Dominika Cibulkova and Ksenia Pervak 0-6 3-6.

Matches I watched:

Chang vs. Stosur

Chang was close in the first set due to her return of serve catching Stosur in no man's land. She served for the set at 5-4 but couldn't capitalize. Stosur ran away with the second.

Chan vs. Ivanovic

Tight three set match here which Chan lost. Chan was won the second set thanks to Ivanovic who seemed to be hitting for the fences. To be honest, Chan wasn't doing much and I wasn't too impressed with Chan's play. Her serve was significantly slower than the last time I saw her, and she doesn't look exactly 'fit.' Once Ivanovic got a brain in the third set, Ivanovic started winning quite comfortably.

Lu vs. Monfils

So Lu did win his first round that I expected him to win. Unfortunately he would lose 6-8 in the fifth set to Monfils. Both players were spent and exhausted. Lu seemed to have the more endurance but Monfils had more weapons in his shot selection that carried him to the end.

Hsieh/Peng vs. Johansson/Parmentier

Hsieh and Peng won 6-2 6-4. Nothing too spectacular-Parmentier made so many errors that Hsieh and Peng only needed to play around average to take this in straights.

So later today Lu is playing with Go Saeda in the second round of men's doubles. Hsieh is the only Taiwanese player in the mixed draw.

Taiwan nabs bronze at youth festival

The mixed Taiwanese badminton team grabbed the bronze medal at the Australian Youth Olympics Festival, opened to rising stars. Played as one singles per sex, one doubles per sex, and mixed doubles, the Taiwan team, made of 16-18 year olds, beat New Zealand in the first round. Then they lost a 3-2 match against Malaysia before coming back to beat Great Britain 5-0 for the bronze medal.

Good job!

Flashback...2001 East Asian Games

Lin Yung-Hsi was the last Taiwanese gymnast at the Olympic Games. In Sydney 2000, he finished 51st in qualifying.

At the 2001 East Asian Games, he placed 2nd on the vault

Here is the link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLoorZEbuHA

His first vault is a half on twisting (can't tell how many twists) move. Good and clean in the air. Goes a little bit more horizontally than vertically than I'd like though.

His second vault is a double front. Again it's good in the air, but he lands low and has to take multiple steps.

Gymnastics in Taiwan is not very popular. At international meets, the men do better than the women. The best events in Taiwan have historically been rings, vault, and pommel horse.

Australian Open Preview

It's the Pacific Asia Grand Slam!!!!

So Taiwan has three women in the main draw: Hsieh Su-Wei, Chang Kai-Chen, and Chan Yung-Jan. Yung-Jan successfully made it out of qualifying. (Woot!) She had to win three matches and only lost ten games in the process. A huge Taiwanese contingent was there (probably over 500).

Hsieh plays Lara Arruabarrena-Vecino, who is playing in her first Australian Open. Chang plays Top 10 player Australian Samantha Stosur (solace is Stosur is dreadful playing in her home country and Chang beat her last year in Osaka). Chang got a horrible draw and is playing Daniela Hantuchova.

In doubles, Hsieh is playing with her friend Shuai Peng. Chang is playing with another Chinese-Yan Zi coming back from maternity leave. And of course, Yung-Jan will be playing with her sister. Draws will be announced later. Unfortunately top 50 ranked Chuang Chia-Jung is out with injury and can't play.

In men's singles, Lu Yen-Hsun plays Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo of Spain. Hidalgo is ranked about 30 places below Lu and has never won a match here. (So please please win your match Rendy....)

In qualifying, Taiwan had three men: Jimmy Wang lost first round while Ti Chen and Yang Tsung-Hua lost in the second round.

That's it for now. It'd be great to see if the same people who watched Chan Yung-Jan come out and watch more of the Australian Open!

2013 BWF Super Series Kicks Off

Korea Open in Seoul

Taiwan's entries:

Men's Singles-
Hsu Jen Hao and Chou Tien Chen

Women's Singles-
Tai Tzu Ying (only 18 years of age), Cheng Shao Chieh, Pai Hsiao Ma, and Hsu Ya Ching (made it out of qualifying)

Men's Doubles-
Lee Sheng Mu and Tsai Chia Hsin

Women's Doubles-
Hung Shih Chieh and Wu Fang Chien
Cheng Wen Hsing and Hsieh Pei Chen
Chang Kai Hsin and Tsai Pei Ling

Mixed Doubles-
Lee Sheng Mu and Cheng Wen Hsing

Couple entries failed in qualification
Here's a choppy video of Hsueh Hsuan Yi losing in the final qualifying round
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R42Ilk1gaHM

More from the Chan Sisters

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeSqzYEym3s

Here are some comments the Chan sisters gave to the media. Basically they said they needed to focus more but that this was a great start to the season.

Yung-Chan speaks first and younger sis Hao-Ching speaks second in the video.

Chan Sisters take Shenzhen Open

Congrats to Hao-Ching and Yung-Jan for capturing the Shenzhen Open! The first seeds stayed true to form, and this is the first title for the duo together. They beat Irina Buryachok of Ukraine and Valeria Solovieva 6-0 7-5. They started the week off blitzing Alexandra Candatu and Anne Keothavong 6-0 6-1. In the quarters they had to survive a super tiebreaker and a tiebreaker in the semis. Congrats!

On another note, Su-Wei lost her second match and had to pull out of doubles with her sister. WTA states that she had a right forearm injury. But on facebook, Su-Wei calmed her fans saying that it was just a 24 hour thing. She's signed up for Hobart this week, so hoepfully this is just a minor scare. She plays her good friend Shuai Peng in the first round and is not signed up for doubles.

Hao-Ching wil play Syndey this week in doubles with Alicja Rosolska of Poland. Yung-Jan is probably going to be in Melbourne preparing for the Australian Open qualifying.

Good luck!

10 things I want to see in 2013

Some are more realistic than others

1.       Tennis player Hsieh Su-Wei to maintain her ranking in the top 30

2.       Fourth of the medals table at East Asian Games

3.       Figure skater qualify past the first round at the World Championships

4.       Luger Lien Te-An successfully qualify for the 2014 Olympics

5.       Jeremy Lin leads Rockets to the playoffs

6.       Golfer Yani Tseng to hold on to her number 1 ranking

7.       Advance out of pool play at the World Baseball Classic

8.       Top 6 finish for both national basketball teams at the FIBA Asia Championships

9.       Footballer Victor Chou to recover from his foot surgery

10.   Jimmy Wang to break back into top 100 of the ATP rankings

What would you like to see of Taiwanese athletes this year?