Georgia's Magical Nights of Lights Bigger and Brighter for 2026

Hong Kong will collect at least two more bronze medals in squash on Thursday, although the men’s and women’s teams have loftier goals in mind at the Asian Games. Semi-finals against Pakistan and India at the Nagoya Kinjo Futo Arena stand between the Hong Kong players and a shot at gold. With cyclist Ceci Lee Sze-wing in action in the women’s Madison, Coleman Wong Chak-lam into the quarter-finals of the men’s singles, and the start of the rugby sevens, the city’s athletes will have designs on...

Zheng Qinwen begins her China Open campaign on Friday confident she can recapture the form that made her among the best women’s players in the world, despite the pressures that come from trying to win at home. The former world No 4 and Olympic gold medallist said she was fully prepared for what lay ahead, even though she dropped outside the top 100 at one stage this season. But an impressive run to the quarter-finals of the US Open has helped her bounce back to near the top 50, and good...

Zac Purton is hoping the best version of Colourful King shows up when he goes for a fifth 1,000m win in Thursday’s Group Three National Day Cup at Sha Tin. The David Eustace-trained galloper has won a pair of minimum-trip races at both Happy Valley and Sha Tin, with his two wins last season coming at the latter venue. Ending last season by winning the Class One Pearce Memorial Challenge Cup (1,000m), he also posted a huge effort to finish second in the Group Three Bauhinia Sprint Trophy, where...

Under 1,000 spectators watched Asian Games hosts Japan beat South Korea in the semi-finals of the women’s football at a 50,000-capacity stadium, with a top official admitting Wednesday that attendances at some events were “disappointing”. Japanese organisers have been on the defensive over ticket sales since the opening ceremony on September 19 took place in front of thousands of empty seats in Nagoya. Officials said on that occasion that the threat of a typhoon put people off, and heavy rain...

China’s 21-year-old Chen Yuxi became the oldest gold medal winner in women’s 10m platform diving at the Asian Games for 52 years on Tuesday. The victory marked Chen’s first individual Asian Games gold medal, finishing ahead of teammate Lu Wei, 20, who claimed silver. The pair had previously topped the podium together in the synchronised event. Chen’s win also rekindled interest in her compatriot Quan Hongchan, who is two years younger and missed the Asian Games through injury. China have claimed...

Francis Lui Kin-wai is eager to see Hot Delight prove himself at 1,400m when one of the city’s most electrifying four-year-olds faces his first test at the trip at Sha Tin on Thursday. An outstanding winner of four of five starts in his debut campaign last season, Hot Delight will return in the highlight of the National Day undercard, the Class Two Beijing Handicap, but Lui is guarded about his claims. The son of Too Darn Hot proved he would be a serious Classic Series contender and was compared...

Manchester City used “sham” commercial contracts as part of schemes ⁠to inflate revenue and understate costs by more than £900 million over nearly a decade, ⁠the Premier League said on Tuesday after an independent commission ruled the club guilty of serious breaches of financial rules. The commission found City guilty of all charges relating to breaches of the league’s financial rules over nine seasons, between the 2009-10 and 2017-18 campaigns, as well as three of four charges concerning their...

“Don’t get me started on financial fair play,” Vincent Kompany said, immediately after his Bayern Munich team had beaten Aston Villa in a pre-season friendly at Kai Tak Stadium last month. The same billionaire-owned Aston Villa that in May won the Europa League; that is competing in this season’s Champions League, yet was forced to sell a host of A-list stars over the summer to comply with financial regulations. As Bayern head coach, Kompany hugely benefits from the spending restrictions that...

Hong Kong’s athletes were sent to the Asian Games in Japan this month with the demand they “achieve even greater success, bringing more glory to the country and Hong Kong” and the weight of a city’s considerable expectations on their shoulders. In this instance, greater success is surpassing the record 53 medals won in Hangzhou three years ago, although the message might also have been “look at how much money we give you, don’t disappoint us”. Whether the 580 sportsmen and women tasked with...

Hong Kong’s men got their track cycling campaign off to a strong start on Tuesday, winning bronze in the team sprint, while the city’s squash players continued to march through their respective team events. China, meanwhile, took gold in the sprint in a Games record time of 42.152 seconds at Izu Velodrome, consigning Japan to silver. The hosts finished in 42.511. There was victory too for China’s women, who set an Asian record of 45.370 in beating Malaysia to team sprint gold. Chinese Taipei...

Former China table tennis player Cheng Jingqi has warned that toxic online scrutiny is affecting Wang Chuqin and damaging the team, with the world No 1 admitting he is “losing the feeling of loving the court”. Wang lost 4-0 to 21-year-old compatriot Lin Shidong in the men’s singles table tennis final at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Monday, with news of the defeat attracting over 6,000 comments and 18,000 likes on Chinese social media within two minutes. The comment section of the post...

As the dust settles on their intense and increasingly fraught home WXV Challenger campaign, Hong Kong have begun absorbing the salutary lessons they received over what it will take to fulfil their goal of becoming “a force on the world stage”. After beginning with a gutsy, if slightly fortunate, win over Brazil, the city team were flattened by eventual champions Fiji in their second match. Favourites going into their closing fixture on Saturday against Samoa, they trailed from the second minute...