Asian Games bracing for India, Pakistan animosity to hit cricket clashes in Japan

Five days away from one of the biggest matches of his young life, it would have been understandable had Sohgo Ichikawa reined in his efforts when his club team, Lee Man, faced Eastern District. Instead, the 22-year-old buzzed about on Friday in the manner that has made him the outstanding young player of the early part of the Hong Kong Premier League season. He will step out for the under-23s’ opening Asian Games fixture against his birth country, Japan, next Wednesday cradling fresh memories of...

Jay Rooney LUCY IN THE SKY - R9 (5) Backs up off a solid return and drops in weight with the apprentice claim in play   Owen Goulding ROAD TO GLORY - R5 (9) Lashed home on debut behind smart sort and has trialled up well   Paul Lally FLYING KNIGHT - R10 (14) Progressive horse that has trialled well and looks hard to beat first up   Phillip Woo SOLID STATE - R8 (1) Was a stylish winner of his local debut in July and can double up   Trackwork Spy SOLID STATE - R8 (1) Made a big statement at his...

The first two meetings of the new season have been run and won and racing continues at Sha Tin on Sunday with a competitive 10-race card. Jay Rooney is in the hot seat to provide an extended rundown of his selections. Race 1 – Class Five Hong Tung Handicap (1,400m) – first section Rattan Galaxy was narrowly beaten at the end of last season after leading from gate 14 and can get a more favourable run from barrier two here. Race 2 – Class Four Hing Wah Handicap (1,000m) Looking Bright went close...

The newest tennis star in China said she wanted to be like Zheng Qinwen and hoped she could play against the Olympic champion on the professional tour one day, after reaching the US Open girls’ singles final. Sun Xinran beat Chukwumelije Clarke of the United States 7-5, 0-6, 6-1 to reach the final, where she will face fifth seed Russian teenage girl Anna Pushkareva. New York is the third grand slam final for Sun this year, after reaching the last two at the French Open and Wimbledon, but she has...

Mark Newnham has made a strong start to the new season and will be looking to keep the momentum rolling with a team that includes promising Australian import Money Games at Sha Tin on Sunday. Newnham has sent out two winners from 10 runners to start a campaign that is likely to see a number of his string heading towards a hugely competitive four-year-old series. Joyful Joy was the first of Newnham’s 67-strong arsenal to strike this season and is likely to head down the Classic Mile route, while...

Brenton Avdulla has declared he has no intentions of returning home to Australia this season as he bids to prove himself worthy of a licence extension beyond February. After two strong campaigns in Hong Kong, Avdulla slid down the championship standings with 21 wins last season, prompting the Jockey Club to hand him a six-month licence. “I’ve got no ambitions to go home. That’s one thing I’ll make clear, I don’t really want to go home,” Avdulla said. “I’ve been here three seasons – I had a good...

Hyrox executives and coaches believe the indoor fitness competition will not follow in the footsteps of gym trends that have briefly captured the imagination before fading from view, in part because its universal format gives it global appeal. While competitions such as CrossFit, HIIT and a variety of outdoor obstacle races have largely struggled to build on their initial popularity, Hyrox has become one of the fastest-growing fitness competitions in the world. Founded in November 2017 by...

After a flying reconnaissance visit to Japan, where they dodged deer and navigated treacherous, rain-sodden descents, the daredevil cycling pair of Chloe Leung Wing-yee and Vincent Lau Wan-yau have equipped themselves with the smarts to launch Hong Kong’s Asian Games campaign in grand style next week. If it is a bugbear of Herve Dagorne’s that each delegation is allowed only one rider in the individual time trial races that get the Games cycling programme under way next Sunday, then in Leung and...

A “lone warrior” watched on as China’s football team started their 2026 U20 Women’s World Cup with an emphatic 5-0 victory over New Caledonia in Poland. Li Zijian was the sole Chinese fan in attendance at Sosnowiec Arena, his solitary cheers spurring on the team during the match. And his presence did not go unnoticed. At the end of the match, captain Liu Chen led her team hand in hand towards an almost empty stand, bowing deeply to the 23-year-old earlier in the week. Li was also in attendance...

When she shattered her pelvis in 2011, Jacqueline Lai Jing-man wondered if the music had stopped on her athletic career after one Asian Games experience just months earlier – 15 years on she is ready for her fifth. Part of the team jumping quartet that claimed Hong Kong’s first Games equestrian medal, it was soon after she won bronze in Guangzhou in 2010, that her mother, the former actress Ellen Ng Ha-ping, revealed she had spent more than HK$10 million (US$1.3 million) on helping Jacqueline...

China’s men opened their Asian Games basketball campaign by routing Kazakhstan 99-61 on Friday, despite preparing in cramped container housing and having training disrupted by record-breaking rainfall in Japan. Pang Zhenglin led China with 19 points and four assists, while Li Hongquan recorded 16 points and nine rebounds. Yu Jiahao added 15 points, Jacky Cui Yongxi scored 12, and both Liao Sanning and Jiao Boqiao contributed 10 points. The opening victory came against a backdrop of severe...

Yu Zidi made history last year aged 12 when she became the youngest-ever medallist at the swimming world championships. Now a teenager, she headlines China’s bid for Asian Games domination and has Olympic glory in her sights. The 13-year-old schoolgirl with a pixie haircut stunned the sporting world last year with a series of eye-popping times. At the 2025 World Aquatics Championships in Singapore she helped China reach the 4x200m women’s freestyle relay final. She did not swim in the final but...

Champion Hong Kong galloper Ka Ying Rising has created history by achieving the highest rating ever for a sprinter for his stunning victory at Sha Tin last Sunday. After returning in a blaze of glory in the Group Three HKSAR Chief Executive’s Cup (1,200m), the David Hayes-trained superstar reclaimed outright top spot in the Longines World’s Best Racehorse Rankings with a rating of 135 when the latest rankings were released on Thursday. That mark saw the brilliant winner of 21 consecutive races...

As a whopping 580-strong Hong Kong squad prepares to go to this month’s Asian Games on the taxpayers’ dime, one of the city’s leading coaches has said that cash is being squandered on athletes who have no right to generous financial backing. While not pointing the finger in any specific direction, Andrew Wright, the Hong Kong triathlon head coach, said sports bodies in the city “set the bar pretty low … which breeds a non-high performance environment”. “What also frustrates me is the amount of...

Former China national volleyball player Wang Yunlu tearfully confessed, in an in-depth video interview released on Wednesday, that her career felt like a “failure” after being dropped from the Paris Olympics roster at the last minute. Wang spent more than two years as an indispensable starter during the Paris Olympic cycle, stepping up when stars Zhu Ting and Zhang Changning were sidelined with injury. However, she was left off the final squad following the return of key veterans and roster...

Mauricio Pochettino said Chelsea should be stripped of their 2016-17 English Premier League title ⁠and it should be handed ⁠to his former Tottenham Hotspur side following ⁠the Blues’ record fine for rule breaches earlier this year. Chelsea were fined a record total of £10.75 million (US$14.56 million) in March for historical breaches of the Premier League’s regulations after voluntarily reporting in 2022 that they had evidence of a potential breach of the rules relating to third-party payments...

What could be Cristiano Ronaldo’s last chance to win a first AFC Champions League Elite title for his Saudi club will get under way next week. Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr are one of five Saudi Pro League teams in the tournament. Combined, they have spent more than US$2 billion on foreign players since 2023, with Al-Ahli lifting the continental trophy in each of the past two seasons. Al-Ahli captain and goalkeeper Edouard Mendy is hoping to make it three in a row in the 32-team tournament. “This is the...

The first week of the 2026-27 Hong Kong racing season is in the books and there are plenty of reasons to be excited about what lies ahead this campaign. Ka Ying show continues The world’s best racehorse kicked off his season in stunning style, demolishing his own 1,200m track record by almost a second in his Group Three HKSAR Chief Executive’s Cup romp last Sunday. The eyes of the racing world will be on David Hayes’ superstar when he defends his crown in the Group One The Everest at Randwick...

China’s 75-72 victory over Puerto Rico in Berlin on Wednesday secured a fourth consecutive Fiba Women’s World Cup quarter-final berth, sparking a wave of relief on domestic social media alongside growing fan anxiety over squad depth and fatigue ahead of a daunting clash against France. WNBA star Han Xu produced a dominant 21-point, 11-rebound double-double – her third in a row – to lead China through the qualifying play-in. Yang Shuyu scored 15 points, while 2.21-metre (7-foot-3) centre Zhang...

Frankie Lor Fu-chuen has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to his four-year-olds this campaign and Solid State is the first of his potential Classic Series contenders to get their season rolling at Sha Tin on Sunday. The Snitzel galloper failed to win in seven Australian starts when owned by the Coolmore powerhouse, but he had shown plenty of ability when finishing fourth in the Group Three Pago Pago Stakes (1,200m) and sixth in the Group Two Spirit of Boom Classic (1,200m). That...

Japan men’s gymnastics team for their home Asian Games this month include multiple Olympic and world champions, but serious injuries have clouded their chances. Shinnosuke Oka, who won gold in the all-around, team and horizontal bar events at the 2024 Paris Olympics, is facing a race to be fit after suffering a lower back injury last week. The Games begin in Nagoya and the wider Aichi area on September 19, with the men’s gymnastics competition getting under way two days later. Former junior...

Zheng Qinwen’s storming run through qualifying to the US Open quarter-finals has the 2024 Olympic gold medallist finally feeling like a force on the court again. The Chinese star fell in three sets to Elena Rybakina on Wednesday, but her time in New York was a leap in the right direction for the former world No 4. After her lengthy recovery from elbow surgery last year was followed by a string indifferent results, Zheng’s ranking dropped so low that she had to come through three qualifying...

An Indian powerlifter who won a silver medal at a world championship has spoken out after being targeted with online harassment and objectified for her looks, calling the ordeal “sexism at its finest”. Keyaa Kunal Banerji, 21, showed remarkable strength early in her career at the 2026 IPF World Sub-Junior and Junior Classic Powerlifting Championships in Sun City, South Africa, late last month. Weighing 45.7kg in the Junior Women’s 47kg category, Banerji pulled 140kg in the dead lift, more than...

Caspar Fownes launched his bid for back-to-back trainers’ championships with a double at the first Happy Valley meeting of the season on Wednesday night courtesy of Jumbo Blessing and No Other Choice. Living up to his moniker as ‘the King of the Valley’, Fownes struck with $49.9 outsider No Other Choice in the second section of the Class Five Admiralty Handicap (1,200m) before Jumbo Blessing justified his handler’s confidence with a strong victory first up without a trial. Despite starting...

From the football bosses seemingly hellbent on creating a year-long product, to a tennis calendar that Carlos Alcaraz this week called impossible, sporting administrators have been accused of roundly abandoning the concept of less is more. There was also the case a couple of years ago of Chinese table tennis pair Fan Zhendong and Chen Meng withdrawing from the world rankings in protest at the fines being imposed on overworked players for skipping events. Given the steady uprising of athletes...

The organisers of the China GT Championship in which British driver Ollie Millroy almost died have been accused of “gross negligence” amid claims some track staff were gig workers being paid just 60 yuan (US$8.50) a day. Millroy’s car burst into flames after a three-vehicle collision at the Shanghai International Circuit, and he was pulled from the burning wreckage by 23-year-old Dutch driver Loek Hartog with fire marshals and stewards nowhere to be seen. According to his Instagram account,...

At the end, when five riveting sets and one agonisingly tight tiebreak were over – and when the latest-finishing match in US Open history had concluded – Ben Shelton was not the only player smiling. Carlos Alcaraz, the player Shelton had just defeated in an entertaining, spine-tingling marathon, was smiling too. The dethroned defending champ grinned as he walked to the net to hug Shelton. And he did so again a few minutes later when he stood in a hallway surrounded by reporters, reflecting on a...

Hundreds of Asian Games athletes in Japan were briefly evacuated from their accommodation as record rainfall lashed host city Nagoya, with competition starting on Thursday. Rainwater also leaked into some competition venues, with more wet weather forecast for the coming days. The Asian Games officially begin on September 19 but several events, such as basketball, get under way before that. About 104mm (four inches) of rain fell in an hour in Nagoya on Tuesday, prompting municipal officials to...

He has a degree in accountancy but Tsang Chiu-tat can rarely have encountered a calculation as complex as the one of trying to help the Hong Kong under-23 team compete in this month’s Asian Games. Appointed in July after predecessor Darren Arnott quit to become Football Club head coach, Tsang will work with his full 23-man squad for the first time on the eve of next Wednesday’s opening fixture against hosts Japan in the 45,000-capacity Toyota Stadium. This week, those players in the city have...

Jamie Richards will look to kick off the Happy Valley season in style with a team headlined by Storming Dragon in the Class Three Wan Chai Handicap (1,200m). The six-year-old son of Star Turn performed consistently at Happy Valley throughout last season and has had two solid trials leading into his first-up performance. The four-time winner will receive the services of Brenton Avdulla to help overcome a wide draw of barrier eight and should benefit from a strong pace. “He’s a consistent horse....

On the first placement of her veterinary technology degree, Sabay Lynam found herself patrolling the “domestic reptile ward”. “There were lizards, turtles and snakes,” she said. “Lots of snakes.” Slight of stature, Lynam is a fast and fearless fullback for the Hong Kong women’s 15s team. She is home from Australia, the country she left for Hong Kong at four, and where she now studies at the University of Queensland, for the WXV Global Series Challenger tournament. In the battle for a World Cup...

Asian Games organisers announced they were making a final push to boost sluggish ticket sales for sports such as women’s football and baseball ahead of the opening ceremony in less than two weeks. There was, however, better news for other sports, with Aichi governor Hideaki Omura announcing at a press conference on Tuesday that more than 60 per cent of tickets have been sold across 31 of the 41 sports. While overall sales figures for the opening and closing ceremonies were not disclosed, 17...

Jay Rooney ROBOT LUCKY STAR - R7 (1) Looks well placed down in grade off a nice trial win and has drawn well   Owen Goulding TYCOON RESOURCES - R8 (4) Excuses at Sha Tin when last seen and looked the real deal at the Valley prior   Olivia O'Sullivan ROBOT LUCKY STAR - R7 (1) Drops in grade on return and latest trial win suggests he is ready to strike   Phillip Woo VIOLET STAR - R5 (5) Likes this Valley trip and trialled well at Conghua ahead of his return   Trackwork Spy TYCOON RESOURCES - R8...

Chinese WNBA player Han Xu scored a second consecutive double-double as China beat Italy 71-51 to secure second place in their group at the Fiba Women’s Basketball World Cup. China’s 7ft 3in (2.33m) teenage sensation Zhang Ziyu scored eight points with perfect shooting from the field as her team established an 18-point lead at one point, while New York Liberty centre Han led the team with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Han had powered China to the comeback win against the Czech Republic the previous...

Harry Bentley returns to Happy Valley for the first time since June with a strong book of rides after being prematurely sidelined by injury a month before the end of last season. The British jockey fell from Smiling Falcon at Sha Tin in June, causing a fractured forearm, fractured shoulder blade and five broken ribs. Following intensive physiotherapy and training throughout the off-season, Bentley returned to Sha Tin on Sunday where he was able to secure a second placing aboard Flying Fortress...

China’s new badminton chief has vowed to crack down on corruption and “purge industry chaos” after being appointed to replace two-time Olympic gold medallist Zhang Jun. Zhang Jun, the former president of the Chinese Badminton Association (CBA), has not been seen for months after being accused in April of “serious violations of discipline and law”. On Tuesday, the CBA said Zhang Xin – an official from China’s General Administration of Sport – would be the new president. The governing body would,...

Zheng Qinwen has described her slow return to form as a painful rebirth that left her questioning herself and led to “uncomfortable conversations” with her parents and coaches. After months of struggling on the tour, the Chinese star has returned to form at the US Open, and produced a second thrilling win in a matter of days on Monday in New York, battling back from 5-0 down to beat Iga Swiatek in straight sets to reach the quarter-finals. The former world No 4 has been in such poor form for the...

Chinese referee Ma Ning hopes to “pass the torch” to the next generation of football officials in the country, and encouraged them to show the world what they are capable of. Ma became only the second official from the mainland to take charge of a game at the Fifa World Cup when he oversaw Curacao’s goalless draw with Ecuador this summer – and the first to serve at two different tournaments. While he does not know if he would want to stand at a third, he said he would gladly do so if his country...

Private equity firm L Catterton is close to buying a controlling stake in Hyrox in a deal that may value the fitness competition brand at about €600 million (US$697 million), according to people familiar with the situation. L Catterton, which is based in Greenwich, Connecticut in the United States, is also considering bringing in global partners including from Asia to co-invest, the people said, as Hyrox quickly gains popularity in places such as mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore and...

As the best athletes prepare to perform on the region’s biggest stage at the coming Asian Games, Zhang Jiaqi, a Chinese Olympic diving champion, was making headlines for a different type of performance. The 22-year-old former diver, who won gold at the 2018 Asian Games and the Tokyo Olympics, recently appeared on the reality television show My Little One, providing viewers with a look at her unapologetic love for anime, casual living habits and desire to break free from the state sports...