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Just one day before the official opening of the Asian Games, chaotic accommodation arrangements have surfaced on the cruise ship hosting athletes in Nagoya, with Chinese table tennis stars including Sun Yingsha and Wang Chuqin describing living on board as a “unique” experience. On Thursday, the Chinese table tennis team held their first practice session in Nagoya following a rocky arrival that significantly compressed their training and rest schedule. The team also had to quickly adapt to...

China is emerging as a key target for growth as the International Cricket Council seeks new fans worldwide, its chief executive says. While South Asia accounts for about 90 per cent of cricket’s billion-plus fans, the ICC is seeking to expand the sport’s fan base by 500 million and sees China’s 1.4 billion people as a potentially huge audience – helped by the steady progress of its women’s team. “The continued success of their women’s team has provided a major boost to cricket in the country,”...

The local football association has planted its flag in the camp of Gianni Infantino, the embattled Fifa president who is expected in Hong Kong for the final of the second-tier Asean Cup on October 3. At a media event to announce details for the coming competition on Friday, Eric Fok Kai-shan fudged the direct question over whether Infantino retained his organisation’s backing. But the chairman of the Football Association of Hong Kong, China (HKFA) said that “whoever supports Hong Kong football...

Australian athlete Joanna Wietrzyk has issued a public apology after soiling herself during Hyrox Beijing, admitting she should have stepped off the track while announcing her retroactive withdrawal from the race and forfeiture of her points. The 24-year-old elite athlete completed Saturday’s race covered in faeces after organisers failed to intervene, leaving more than 1,000 subsequent participants to compete on the contaminated track and shared equipment. Wietrzyk previously posted “a win is a...

Zheng Qinwen’s sponsors have proved even more excited than her long-awaiting fans, kicking off a new round of commercial campaigns to capitalise on her 69-spot surge to world No 52 after her comeback run at the US Open. Following her amazing comeback victories at the year’s final grand slam event in New York, where she lost only to eventual champion Elena Rybakina in the quarter-finals, her sponsors posted celebratory campaigns, competing to highlight their early faith in her resilience. Among...

The city’s tennis chief is “quietly confident” that Filipino superstar Alexandra Eala, and fellow main attractions Paula Badosa and Diana Shanider, will show up for the 2026 Prudential Hong Kong Tennis Open in November. In the past two years, Michael Cheng Ming-git has seen Naomi Osaka and Emma Raducanu both withdraw with injuries on the eve of the WTA 250 tournament. But the president of the Hong Kong, China Tennis Association said the “issue about no-shows has got nothing to do with the...

A big believer that elite sporting performance is entirely dictated by an athlete’s brain, Greg Koenig is busy convincing Cheung Ka-long that the Asian Games remain an important date in his calendar. Hong Kong’s first fencing superstar, Cheung has been there and done it over the past five years. He brilliantly won a pair of Olympic golds, first as an unfancied underdog, then as the foil king his rivals all wanted to dethrone, either side of becoming Asian Games champion in 2023. Of Cheung’s...

Kitchee survived playing the final 25 minutes with 10 men, after a debatable red card for captain Ruslan Mingazov, to draw 0-0 with Gangwon FC on Thursday night in their opening AFC Champions League 2 match. Although a point against the strongest team in the group represented a sound return, it could have been even better for the Hong Kong club on their return to Asian competition after three years away. Mingazov and Victor Camarasa, the former Cardiff City midfielder, were both inches wide with...

Athletes from multiple countries arriving in Japan for the 20th Asian Games were stranded at Nagoya airport because of a technical glitch, leaving some Chinese team members stuck for seven hours without food. According to state media, the plane carrying the country’s delegation from Beijing landed on schedule at around 12.15pm, with buses already waiting at Chubu Centrair International Airport to take them to their accommodation. However, athletes and officials soon found themselves trapped at...

The 20th Asian Games officially get under way in Japan on Saturday, and the honour of leading the Hong Kong delegation into the opening ceremony has been handed to Ivan Yang and Lydia Sham. At a welcome event on Thursday, Wong Po-kee, the chef de mission for Hong Kong’s more than 800-strong delegation, said the pair would be the city’s flag bearers for the event at the Nagoya City Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium. Officials and some of the city’s athletes attended a flag-raising at Nagoya Port...

Hyrox China has given full refunds to competitors affected by last weekend’s incident in Beijing, while the global governing body has updated its rule book to allow race directors to remove athletes if they pose a risk to the hygiene of the event. The commercial fitness competition has faced intense public backlash since elite Australian athlete Joanna Wietrzyk suffered incontinence during the solo women’s event but was allowed to carry on and win. Her mid-race left track surfaces and shared...

Chinese runner Zhao Jiaju became the first athlete to complete the 330km Tor des Géants in under 66 hours on Wednesday, breaking the course record to claim victory in Italy using a “fragmented sleep” strategy. Wearing bib No 1, he crossed the finish line in Courmayeur at 9.55am with a winning time of 65 hours, 55 minutes and 22 seconds, making history as the first Asian competitor to win the event. Widely regarded as one of the world’s most gruelling ultra-trail races, the flagship event offers...