Asian Games crowds ‘disappointing’ as 998 fans watch football in 50,000-seat stadium

Squash may have secured its long-awaited Olympic debut at the 2028 Los ⁠Angeles Games, but the chief of ⁠the sport’s global governing body is acutely aware ⁠of budget and venue squeezes and is not taking a spot at the Brisbane 2032 Olympics in Australia for granted. While World Squash is leaving no stone unturned in its bid to retain its Olympic spot, banking on the game’s expanding global footprint and plug-and-play sustainability, its president Zena Wooldridge took a pragmatic view of...

The Jockey Club is investigating reasons for declining local turnover to start the new season, which chief executive Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges labelled a concern. Local wagering on Sunday’s 11-race card at Sha Tin dropped 11.5 per cent on last year to HK$1.359 billion – the fifth time local turnover was down from six meetings so far this term. While field sizes tend to be an issue this early in the season, with some trainers holding back their horses because of the hot weather, the decline in...

There have been times over the past week or so when you were left with the impression that Japan is holding the Asian Games only because everyone was too polite to say no several years ago. The rather haphazard nature of the organisation, and the tens of thousands of empty seats in venues around the Aichi-Nagoya region, is not indicative of a place that has wholeheartedly embraced its role as host to a sporting event that, in terms of competitor numbers at least, is bigger than the...

The first month of the new season is in the books and it was business as usual for Ka Ying Rising and Zac Purton, while an apprentice and host of local trainers also made successful starts to their campaigns. The SCMP analyses the jockeys and trainers who had a month to remember or one to forget, as well as the most outstanding victory and winning ride. Who’s hot? Purton launched his bid for a 10th championship in fine style, firing in 11 wins at a healthy strike rate of 22.9 per cent for...

Hong Kong’s athletes extended their medal run to nine straight days at the Asian Games with bronze in esports and table tennis on Monday, pushing the overall tally to 34. China, meanwhile, continued a remarkable record in the diving, with two more golds, in women’s 1m springboard and men’s 1m springboard, extending an unbeaten streak stretching back to 1974. In that time, 94 titles have been up for grabs, and the country’s divers have taken them all. With six events remaining between now and...

A “more relaxed and less stressed” Ceci Lee Sze-wing will face the challenge of overcoming two-time reigning champion and hometown favourite Yumi Kajihara in her hunt for a potentially career-shaping Asian Games gold. Lee will link up with Chloe Leung Wing-yee in the Madison on Thursday, but it is in the following day’s omnium, which head coach Herve Dagorne labelled “the queen event”, that the 25-year-old could establish herself as the continent’s most complete track cyclist. She has sacrificed...

Vladica Grujic said Hong Kong played “a completely different level of football” from his Laos side, after the world No 186 ranked team were thumped 4-0 in the Fifa Asean Cup on Sunday. Sun Ming-him and Everton Camargo, brilliantly, netted in the opening half, before Dudu’s 55th-minute header defeated the flimsy defences of Souksamone Vethita, and Matt Orr emphatically converted a stoppage-time penalty. Unsurprisingly, Laos did not prove a hot ticket, although the 18,873 fans inside Kai Tak...

Most of Sunday’s athletics events at the Asian Games were seen by many as background noise to the women’s javelin clash between China sensation Yan Ziyi and Japan’s Haruka Kitaguchi, although don’t dare suggest that to Singapore’s Shanti Pereira. While the much-anticipated throwing competition was ultimately as damp as the rain that blanketed Nagoya for much of the day, Pereira’s breathless victory in the women’s 200m was everything sprinting is supposed to be. The 30-year-old’s successful...

China’s Wang Manyu beat compatriot and defending champion Sun Yingsha in the women’s singles final at the Asian Games on Sunday to cement her position as the sport’s new table tennis queen. Wang’s win came days after she displaced Sun at the top of the world rankings. China also enjoyed success in the men’s doubles final, with Huang Youzheng and Lin Shidong beating Japan’s Tomokazu Harimoto and Hiroto Shinozuka 4-2. Wang reclaimed the title she last won at the Jakarta Asian Games in 2018,...

China’s 15-year-old Zhu Yuanling won gold in the women’s street skateboarding competition at the Asian Games on Sunday, the latest in a series of young winners at this edition of the continental multi-sport event. Zhu’s win came a day after Japanese primary school student Yuki Kurihara, 11, demolished opponents three times his age on the way to a historic gold in esports. Earlier in the Games, Chinese swimmer Yu Zidi, 13, became one of the faces of the event with three golds, all in record...

Apprentice Nichola Yuen Hang-yiu continued a season full of milestones with her first Hong Kong treble at Sha Tin on Sunday which saw her claim reduced to 7lb. Perhaps fittingly, she claimed both accolades by edging out Zac Purton with a masterful ride to get Aeroinvincible from pillar to post in the Class Three Kestrel Handicap (1,400m). “It was a very tight finish, I thought I lost the race. I was riding against Zac Purton again and I beat him again, sorry not sorry,” Yuen joked. “Quite a few...

Hong Kong Derby (2,000m) hero Invincible Ibis exceeded trainer Mark Newnham’s expectations on his return to record a thrilling victory in the Group Three Celebration Cup (1,400m) at Sha Tin on Sunday. Handing Newnham and jockey Luke Ferraris back-to-back wins in the HK$4.2 million feature, Invincible Ibis ran on strongly from midfield and held off a late burst from Galaxy Patch to score by a neck. The son of Hellbent made a statement in his return from last season, which saw him claim Champion...