Toro Rosso drops Kvyat, promotes Gasly for F1 Malaysian GP

Harry Bentley is upbeat about his prospects of another win at Happy Valley on Wednesday night, with the British jockey rating Packing Angel and Hymnbook strong chances in their respective races. Fresh from an upset win on $38.9 outsider Thriving Brothers at Sha Tin on Sunday, Bentley will bid to add to his seasonal haul of five victories with five rides at the city circuit. He reunites with Packing Angel in the Class Two Lung Cheung Handicap (1,650m) after guiding the Francis Lui Kin-wai-trained...

Australian coach John Aloisi has been ⁠sacked as ⁠coach of Chengdu Rongcheng ⁠after his team squandered a huge lead at the top of the table to miss out on the Chinese Super League title at the weekend. Chengdu lost their last ‌four matches to give up a lead which once stood at 12 points, allowing Dalian Yingbo to overhaul them and claim a first CSL title after a 3-1 win over Tianjin Tiger on Sunday. “Mr John Aloisi will no longer ⁠serve as head coach of Chengdu Rongcheng Football Club, and his...

Making history is becoming something of a habit for Hong Kong’s Harris Ho Shing-him, who has claimed the city’s first fencing gold at a Youth Olympic Games. A member of the men’s foil team that claimed a rare silver medal at the Asian Games, the 17-year-old sealed his individual foil title in Dakar on Monday, despite losing his first bout of the day. Ho overcame a 5-2 defeat at the hands of Aris Kiayias in his opening match in Pool 1, eventually turning the tables on his Cypriot rival in the...

Gianni Infantino’s re-election as president of Fifa is “a foregone conclusion”, Asian Football Confederation (AFC) vice-president Hashem Haidar said on Monday. Haidar, who is also president of the Lebanese Football Federation, said at the unveiling of a new Fifa Arena pitch in the village of Shanay near the town of Aley, east of Beirut, that “we fully and publicly support” the divisive head of the game’s global governing body. Infantino, who was in Lebanon for Monday’s event, faced stinging...

Blast Premier Rivals returns to Hong Kong “even bigger and better”, and officials hope the city acts as a bridge to mainland China and beyond in the coming years. The esports event, which will see eight of the world’s best CS2 squads compete for a share of a US$1million (HK$7,841,460) prize pool, sold out the AsiaWorld-Arena last year when descending on the city for the first time. It was Hong Kong’s first esports event to be awarded the “M” Mark for major events, with more than 30,000 fans...

France’s five-time Olympic judo champion Teddy Riner announced on Monday he would run in next year’s presidential election, after expressing concern about the “rise of the far-right”. “My name is Teddy Riner and today, I am telling you face to face: I am a candidate in the 2027 presidential election,” the 37-year-old said in a surprise announcement on social media. Riner, one of the greatest judokas in history, said in the two-minute-37-second video that he feared France could soon become deeply...

After repelling eventual champions Spain and becoming an instant global celebrity, Vozinha was an unlikely hero of this year’s World Cup. But four months on from his tournament exploits, Cabo Verde’s veteran goalkeeper is discovering that adapting to his new-found fame is not easy. The 40-year-old, whose full name is Josimar Jose Evora Dias, moved to Chile in July and now finds himself struggling to settle at new club Colo Colo. At the World Cup, Vozinha helped Cabo Verde hold Spain to a 0-0...

Entries for the Longines Hong Kong International Races (HKIR) might lack star power outside of Ka Ying Rising, but Hong Kong’s domination of the city’s biggest meeting in recent years could still come to an end next month. With champion galloper Romantic Warrior’s retirement leaving a gaping hole in the local squad, the city’s richest race, the HK$40 million Group One Hong Kong Cup (2,000m), appears at the mercy of the overseas brigade. The internationals account for 52 of the 72 entries for the...

Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory is a time-honoured tradition across the sporting world, just think Newcastle United in the English Premier League 1995-96 season, or the Atlanta Falcons in the 2017 Super Bowl and you get the idea. But has any team, anywhere, in any sport ever done it more emphatically than Chengdu Rongcheng did this past weekend? The Chinese Super League choke artists confirmed their status as potentially the most spectacular losers of all time when a 3-2 defeat to...

Mark Newnham is hoping the prolific Lucky Sam Gor can complete his Hong Kong set when he bids for a first Happy Valley win in the Class Two Lung Cheung Handicap (1,650m) on Wednesday night. The Press Statement galloper won five times on the Sha Tin turf last season in a rampant campaign where he soared from a rating of 45 all the way up to a high of 79. He got his win on the Sha Tin dirt at the first time of asking last start, slicing his way through the pack to win by a head to get off the mark...

Japan Football Association honorary president Kozo Tashima said governance was ⁠Fifa’s biggest problem as ⁠he outlined his platform for next ⁠year’s presidential election, while rating his chances of unseating incumbent Gianni Infantino at 20 to 30 per cent. Tashima announced on Thursday that he intended to run in the March election, becoming the first Japanese candidate to seek world football’s top ‌job. The 68-year-old former Japan international has served on the Fifa Council since 2015 and...

Jon Rahm fought off Ryder Cup teammates Rory McIlroy and Tyrrell Hatton to win the Abu Dhabi Championship on Sunday for his first ⁠DP World Tour title in four years, marking a successful start to the Spaniard’s career rebuild following the demise of LIV Golf. It was the former world No 1’s first tournament since he left the breakaway circuit, and the Spaniard hit a ‌five-under 67 in Sunday’s fourth round to finish 23-under, earning his 11th title on the DP World Tour. Rahm finished two strokes...