Taiwan’s semi-professional Super Basketball League (SBL) has officially declared the Bank of Taiwan team as the winners of its curtailed 19th season, which concluded Wednesday amid a spread of COVID-19 infections among players.
The Bank of Taiwan team were declared as the winners of the abruptly ended season after an online meeting held by the league with all the clubs Wednesday, deciding to rank the teams based on their regular-season records.
The Bank of Taiwan holds a 23-8 record, sitting on top of the rankings, followed by Taiwan Beer with a 21-10 card. The remaining teams in the five-team league are the Yulon Luxgen Dinos, Jeoutai Technology, and Pauian Archiland.
Taiwan Bank head coach Chen Guo-wei (???) said the league had asked all teams to submit their players and staff to rapid test on Tuesday after the news of some players from Jeoutai Technology had tested positive after taking rapid tests a day earlier.
As for Taiwan Bank, four players who originally tested negative by rapid test Tuesday ended up testing positive on Wednesday, Chen said, adding they had been sent for PCR tests.
Also on Wednesday, two players from Jeoutai Technology were confirmed to be positive after undergoing PCR testing.
Responding to Taiwan Bank being declared the winners of SBL’s 19th season, Chen said he was originally looking forward to the playoffs.
“The journey would have been very precious,” Chen said.
Meanwhile, Taiwan’s professional basketball leagues P. LEAGUE+ and T1 LEAGUE have said they will not call off their seasons as of now and will follow their respective COVID-19 prevention protocols.
The P. LEAGUE+ said all players must show negative quick tests taken 48 hours before their games and they will be sent for PCR testing if a positive test is found.
The players will not be allowed to be with their teams while undergoing PCR testing and if their test turns out to be positive, the whole team will undergo PCR testing, during which their games are postponed, the P. LEAGUE+ said.
If players are told they have been deemed close contacts of someone who is positive between their 48-hour test and the game, they have to undergo rapid testing again, the P. LEAGUE+ said.
As for the T1 LEAGUE, players have to produce a negative rapid test taken 24 hours before their games.
If a player turns out to be positive following a PCR test, their game will be postponed, the T1 LEAGUE said.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel
