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Comings and Goings: Rugby and Baseball

Tuesday, 27th October 2009 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)

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Tonight's Chinese national games gold medal baseball game (6:00 pm Beijing time, Guangdong vs. People's Liberation Army) will probably be the most important baseball game in China for some time to come. Now that it's officially out of the Olympics, baseball will likely be dropped from the next national games and generally given a lot less attention by China's sports authorities. The Olympic baseball stadium is gone from Beijing's Wukesong sports center, and it would be a surprise to see the national professional league return next year. While baseball's China denouement (for now, at least) plays out quietly in Jinan, a sport that just joined the Olympic club has its own athletes in town (Coincidence? Probably not) for a rugby sevens tournament. By the 2013 National Games in Liaoning, those rugby players will be competing for medals and spots on the 2016 Olympic team.

But Americans have not given up on bringing their national pastime to the masses here—Major League Baseball recently launched a new site for the mainland (MLB.cn), opened a baseball academy in Wuxi, and still has staff in Beijing.
Guangdong's Liu Kai, no longer a Yankee minor leaguer, pitched his team to a victory over Beijing Saturday.
Guangdong's Liu Kai, no longer a Yankee minor leaguer, pitched his team to a victory over Beijing Saturday.
Seattle Mariners scouts made the trip to Jinan to keep an eye on a Beijing catcher and first baseman who are in the Mariners system. And Huang Jianhua (Kenny Huang)--the Chinese-born, U.S.-based businessman who's working on team ownership deals in both the NBA (Cleveland Cavaliers) and the CBA (Jilin Northeast Tigers)--supposedly has all kinds of plans for baseball in China.

In the meantime, though, there are a whole bunch of out-of-work guys who can swing a bat or throw a baseball 60 or 70 miles per hour--maybe some of the heavy hitters can get absorbed by the now-Olympic-happy Chinese golf world somehow, a la Happy Gilmore.
And the women who play softball are even worse off, as no one's likely to come to the rescue soon with a softball academy or professional league.

Tags: baseball, Liu Kai, National games, rugby, 刘凯

Around the Web: Curling, HK Sevens, diving and basketball

Tuesday, 31st March 2009 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)

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China wins curling worlds

China likes gold medals. Exhibit A: Its state sports system has produced a world champion curling team seemingly out of nowhere. China beat out Canada for the gold over the weekend to win the Women's World Curling Championships in South Korea. Last year's silver was China's first medal in the 30-year history of the tournament. Canadian Daniel Rafael coaches the team, which was started in 2001. The team skip is Wang Bingyu. She hails from China's far-north, famously frozen city of Harbin and has been on the team since it was created. A look at her Wikipedia entry will give you an idea how rapid the ascent of China's curling team has been.

Fiji wins Hong Kong Sevens
Fiji beat South Africa in the final to win the Hong Kong leg of the IRB World Sevens Series, the hottest annual sporting event in Greater China. IOC president Jacques Rogge got the rugby world extra excited over the weekend, with his comments that he has "a lot of sympathy" for the sport's case for inclusion in the Olympics.

Divers go 7 for 8 at Changzhou

China's divers took seven out of eight golds at the FINA World Grand Prix event in Changzhou over the weekend. The only event that China conceded was the women's three-meter springboard. Sharleen Stratton of Australia won that one after China's Wu Minxia failed to qualify for the final. China's top female three-meter diver, Guo Jingjing, did not compete. Two dates remain on the 2009 Grand Prix circuit--Sheffield, England, on April 18-19; and Mexico City April 24-25.

New coach for women's basketball

China named Sun Fengwu head coach of its national women's basketball program. He replaces Australian Tom Maher, who led the team to a fourth-place Olympic finish and also seems to have been quite well-liked by players and fans. Sun was a point guard for China's men's team in the 1980s. The pressure is on for Sun to lead the team to a medal at the 2012 Olympics in London, but in his more immediate sights are the following competitions:

Asian Championships in Chinese Taipei in June 21
World Championships in Prague, 2010
Asian Games in Guangzhou, 2010

The team will look pretty different by 2012, Sun told Xinhua. He expects that only three to five players from the current squad will still be around then.

Yao Ming gets waxed

Madame Tussaud's Shanghai's wax sculpture of Yao Ming is currently on loan to Madame Tussaud's in New York. Wax Yao, whose height reportedly called for the use of scaffolding in the construction process, was unveiled with a show featuring a troupe of Chinese acrobats. Personally, the place creeps me out and in five years in New York, I never set foot inside. But apparently the new Madame Tussaud's Sports Zone offers activities like playing Wii tennis with Billie Jean King. Maybe, just maybe, that could draw me in. (Note to Western journalists: If you want to call the guy by his surname, it's Yao, not Ming.)

Chinese curling team image: Sina.com

Tags: basketball, curling, diving, Hong Kong Sevens, rugby, Wang Bingyu, Yao Ming

Hong Kong Rugby Sevens This Weekend

Friday, 28th March 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)

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The famous Hong Kong Rugby Sevens, a gluttonous weekend of rugby, take place this weekend. Fans get to watch 24 teams play 57 14-minute matches (that's seven-minute halves, for you mathematicians scratching your heads) over three days. New Zealand is the heavy favorite to win the final, kicking off at 6:20 p.m. Sunday.

Here are the Friday and Saturday fixtures for China, Hong Kong and Chinese Taipei:

Friday, March 28
4:30 Australia v Hong Kong
4:52 Kenya v China
6:20 New Zealand v Chinese Taipei

Saturday, March 29
10:30 Tonga v Hong Kong
10:52 Scotland v China
12:20 USA v Chinese Taipei
2:54 France v Hong Kong
3:16 Portugal v China
4:44 Tunisia v Chinese Taipei

(Sunday's match-ups depend on the first two days' results)

Tags: Hong Kong, rugby, Sevens