Asian Games, day 8: Hong Kong win squash gold, fencers in semis, battle royale in javelin

“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...

⁠Teenage juggernaut Zhang Zhanshuo became the first swimmer to win seven gold medals at an Asian Games on the final night at the Tokyo pool on Friday, when China cemented their superpower status. Sitting on a lane divider, the 19-year-old Zhang counted out the golds with his fingers to mark the moment after cruising to the 400 metres freestyle title in a Games record of three minutes, 41.28 seconds, ‌with Japan’s Kazushi Imafuku a distant runner-up. Having already won the 200m, 400m and 1,500m...

After 28 years and 50,000 kilometres (31,000 miles), a British adventurer is facing one last hurdle in his bid to trek home from South America without using any form of transport: the Channel. “We thought we got permission to swim from the coast of France. Turned out that is not the case,” Karl Bushby, a former paratrooper, said as he walked towards Cap Blanc-Nez in northern France, within sight of the white cliffs of the English coast. “There was some internal confusion. So, right now we’re...

Showing that age is not a constraint, 51-year-old Uzbekistan gymnast Oksana Chusovitina capped off her seventh Asian Games appearance with a fifth-place finish – 32 years after her first appearance at the regional event. Competing against athletes young enough to be her daughter, Chusovitina – who made her bow at the 1994 Hiroshima Games – more than held her own in the women’s vault artistic gymnastics final. Among the 19 athletes competing in the women’s vault on Thursday, 12 were under 21...

Hong Kong’s men had to settle for silver in the team at the Asian Games on Friday, where there was a rare bronze in gymnastics and the city’s swimmer gave us a glimpse of what life will be like without Siobhan Haughey. With squash returning to the Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028, both of the city’s mixed doubles pairs secured a bronze and will have the chance to go at least one better in the semi-finals on Saturday. There was bronze too in the esports Fighting Games category, although table...

China’s 13-year-old swimming prodigy Yu Zidi has stamped her mark all over the Asian Games and she could cause a sensation at the Los Angeles Olympics in two years’ time. The schoolgirl won all three individual races she swam this week in Tokyo with Asian Games records – a series of performances that belied her tender age. Out of the pool, she has proved herself to be a typical teenager, joking around with teammates and freezing when asked about herself in interviews. She will be 15 when the LA...

Scheduling the pre-tournament press conference less than five hours before the opening match did little to disabuse anyone of the impression that everybody involved in organising the inaugural Fifa Asean Cup is flying by the seat of their pants. It all got too much for Vladica Grujic, the fiery Laos head coach, as the clock ticked 15 minutes beyond the scheduled 12.15pm start time. “This is crazy, we’re playing this evening and my player [captain Bounphachan Bounkong] needs to have lunch,”...

Rower Chiu Hin-chun grabbed the gold he needed to complete his set of Asian Games medals, Siobhan Haughey won her fourth of the week, and there was a wushu first as Hong Kong’s athletes had a Thursday to remember in Japan. Chiu’s triumph in the lightweight men’s singles sculls was one of four medals the city’s rowers brought home in Nagoya and Tokyo. Winne Hung Wing-yan took silver in the women’s lightweight single sculls, while there was bronze for women’s pair Cheung Yuen-shan and Leung...

Japan’s men pulled off a stunning upset at the Asian Games on Thursday, beating China to claim table tennis team gold in front of a raucous home crowd. With the sides tied at 2-2 following a back and forth tussle, Sora Matsushima won the decisive match, downing Wen Ruibo 3-1 at Sky Hall Toyota. Matsushima recovered from just losing the opening encounter to Wang Chuqin, who laboured his way to a 3-2 victory, but was overpowered 3-0 by an inspired Tomokazu Harimoto, who set up the thrilling finale...

Frankie Lor Fu-chuen will unleash several of his stars on a key day for the stable at Sha Tin on Sunday, including Classic Cup (1,800m) winner Stormy Grove and Lucky With You in the Group Three Celebration Cup (1,400m). The highlight of Sunday’s card features a stacked field, with the likes of Galaxy Patch, Helios Express, Hong Kong Derby (2,000m) winner Invincible Ibis and Classic Mile hero Little Paradise among the hopefuls. Stormy Grove – a one-time winner pre-import in Australia – was...