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Vladica Grujic skirted the question over why he wanted to remain Laos head coach after the dismal fallout from their recent Asean Championship campaign, but the inquiry was valid. The opponents for Hong Kong’s opening Fifa Asean Cup match at Kai Tak Stadium on Sunday, Laos made wholesale changes for the tournament after the country’s football federation called for an investigation into alleged match-fixing, bribery and illegal gambling among its own squad following a series of heavy Asean...

Jay Rooney CIRCUIT CHAMPION - R11 (6) Was brave in defeat on return and should get a smoother run here   Owen Goulding THUNDER PRINCE - R4 (9) Huge run from woeful draw last start, now drawn better and will be rock-hard fit   Paul Lally CIRCUIT CHAMPION - R11 (6) Didn't have the race run to suit last start and looks well placed to atone   Phillip Woo BRIGHT MORTAR - R5 (6) Should go one better on preferred dirt surface after resuming second on turf   Trackwork Spy PACKING FIGHTER - R9...

Zhang Ziyu played a starring role to drag China to women’s basketball bronze at the Asian Games on Saturday, with her coach predicting the teenager standing 2.2 metres (7-foot-3) will one day be “invincible”. The 19-year-old is already taller than NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal and she made full use of her advantage as China beat Chinese Taipei 77-64 in the third-place match in Nagoya. Zhang has made a name for herself in recent weeks, impressing American superstar Caitlin Clark at the Women’s...

North Korea’s weightlifters will flex their considerable collective muscle when they return to the Olympics for the first time in 12 years at Los Angeles in 2028 – and they could be in for an American gold rush if the Asian Games are any indication. The secretive nation has been the dominant force in global weightlifting since emerging from self-imposed Covid exile to smash six world records at the Hangzhou Asian Games in 2023. They also won six golds. At the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games in Japan...

Tennis legend Billie Jean King and two former professionals acknowledged modern players are suffering from burnout, but believed any change would be affected by the differing needs of elite players and rest, and the commercial pressure of tournaments. At present, WTA rules say players ranked in the top 30 must compete in all grand slams and ten WTA 1000 tournaments, and skipping these events results in ranking penalties and heavy financial fines that directly damage world standings and core...

Karis Teetan is confident Galaxy Patch can replicate his stable debut for Brett Crawford late last season and figure prominently when he returns in Sunday’s Group Three Celebration Cup (1,400m) at Sha Tin. A multiple Group winner and Group One placegetter for Pierre Ng Pang-chi, Galaxy Patch made an impressive first appearance for Crawford in the Group Three Premier Cup (1,400m) in June when he stormed home for a close second to Little Paradise. There is a 4lb swing on that race in favour of...

The battle for mixed doubles gold in squash will be an all-Hong Kong affair at the Asian Games on Sunday, after the city’s duos both won their semi-finals on a day when the city’s athletes picked up another three bronze medals and some semblance of normality returned to table tennis. With swimming finally over at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre, it was the turn of the divers to take centre stage, and to the surprise of absolutely no one, China won the two gold medals on offer on Saturday, the first of...

Japan’s 11-year-old esports prodigy Yuki Kurihara said he was “embarrassed” after winning Asian Games gold on Saturday by thrashing a series of opponents up to three times his age. The bespectacled primary school student, believed to be the youngest competitor at the Games in Aichi-Nagoya, won the Puyo Puyo Champions final 10-2. He is the youngest athlete in host country Japan’s Asian Games history. Puyo Puyo Champions is a puzzle game where players try to clear their screen of coloured blobs by...

Excited by the opportunity to reunite with Invincible Ibis, Luke Ferraris hopes the Hong Kong Derby (2,000m) hero can launch his latest campaign with a bang in Sunday’s Group Three Celebration Cup (1,400m) at Sha Tin. It has been 12 months since the South African jockey rode Mark Newnham’s promising galloper to his third placing from as many starts, with the son of Hellbent then reeling off four straight victories to emerge as a serious Classic Series contender. He followed up a second to Stormy...

“Woo-hoooo!” The cheers swirled as Wu Yibing ended the rally with a blistering forehand winner down the line. The first syllable was emphatically articulated, signalling that this was an intentional play on Wu’s last name, not a random shout after one too many honey deuces. It was Wu’s second-round match against Australian James Duckworth at the US Open earlier this month. Wu’s most vocal supporters turned out to be three white Americans sitting behind the baseline. Widely considered the most...

Manchester City plan to fight the Premier League for months if found guilty of alleged financial breaches in potentially the biggest scandal in English football history. Reports on Friday said an independent panel had upheld nearly all of the 100-plus financial charges against the club in a case that was initiated more than three years ago. City did not confirm the decision, saying their case with the Premier League was “ongoing”. City, however, would appeal against a guilty decision and the...

The Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games may only be halfway through, but the swimmers checked out of the Tokyo Aquatics Centre on Friday. An extended rest was probably too much of a luxury for most of them with the Swimming World Cup just around the corner. A trio of three-day meets in Baku, Tashkent and Astana from the start of next month will also act as qualifiers for the short course World Aquatics Swimming Championships, which run in Beijing from December 1 to 6. Four swimmers, two each from Japan and...