OLYMPICS / Barcelona 1992 - Round-Up: Baseball: Taiwan at first base

TAIWAN'S baseball players booked themselves in for their country's first medal of the games when they beat Japan 5-2 in the semi-final.

This is baseball's debut as a full sport, and Taiwan owe their progress in large part to their pitcher, Kuo Lee Chien-fu, who has pitched more innings than anyone else in the tournament. Yesterday he conceded five hits - just one after the fourth inning - and struck out nine batters. He has been hit for only three runs in the 29 innings he has pitched so far. Taiwan will face Cuba in the final after the Cubans overcame the United States 6-1 in the other semi-final.