Campillo, Frittelli lead Maybank, Westwood in contention

French showjumping legend Roger-Yves Bost has acknowledged that current riders must work harder and perform better than past generations just to secure a foothold at the elite level. With more than half a century in the saddle and still competing at the sport’s highest level, Bost knows better than most about the demands of equestrian. The winner of the Longines Grand Prix in Hong Kong earlier this year and a 2016 Rio Olympic gold medallist, Bost visited Beas River Equestrian Centre on Sunday to...

Wang Junjie set a single-game scoring record for a Chinese player in the top tier of US college basketball after scoring 28 points for the University of Massachusetts on Thursday. Competing in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), Wang accounted for nearly 40 per cent of his team’s points in the comeback 72-62 win over UMass Lowell. The NCAA oversees 90 championships across 24 sports spanning three tiers, Divisions I, II and III, with basketball and American football...

Much like the looming heavyweight clash between Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury, the mooted coming together of Mauricio Pochettino and Manchester United feels like it is happening a decade too late. Had he taken over at the peak of his powers in 2016 or 2018, following the respective exits of Louis van Gaal and Jose Mourinho, Pochettino would have inherited malfunctioning teams, but teams flirting with the Premier League’s top end, nonetheless. Should he be confirmed as Old Trafford boss this...

A former Chinese national swimming champion who now runs a street food stall has said there is no shame in sportspeople returning to normal life. Yang Fan, who once trained with the national squad, attracted attention on social media for selling traditional snacks on a street in Tianjin alongside her husband, who is also a retired athlete. “Looking at how I appear now, you would never imagine I used to be a national champion,” Yang said in one of her videos. “Right now, I am running a stall in...

Manchester United sacked manager Michael Carrick on Thursday after their worst start to a Premier League campaign, with USA boss Mauricio Pochettino widely expected to replace him. Former United midfielder Carrick led the team to an impressive third-place finish last season but they have taken just eight points from 10 games in the current campaign and are mired in the relegation zone. “Manchester United can confirm that Michael Carrick has departed his role as men’s first-team head coach,” the...

Riding on the crest of a wave with six wins so far this month, Alexis Badel is confident Solid State can capitalise on a light weight when he makes his Class Two debut in Saturday’s Panasonic Cup (1,200m) at Sha Tin. Badel’s confidence is sky high after booting home a treble at Happy Valley on Wednesday night and the Frenchman has five rides at the Saturday fixture. Solid State drops 19lb on his last-start second to Bunta Baby at Sha Tin under Zac Purton, who cannot make the Frankie Lor Fu-chuen...

Local sports chiefs have defended their decision to include two Russian club teams in next month’s Hong Kong International Lacrosse Sixes. Moscow Lacrosse Club and Phoenix Moscow will compete in the men’s and women’s events in the city for the first time, despite the sport’s world governing body suspending Russian teams, athletes and officials in World Lacrosse events and related qualifiers indefinitely in March 2022 after the country invaded Ukraine. Hong Kong has regularly hosted tournaments...

Son Heung-min and four other South Korean players said Thursday they had put their differences aside after reports of bitter internal divisions at the heart of the national team. South Korean football has been mired in controversy since their hugely disappointing exit in the group stage of the World Cup, after which unpopular coach Hong Myung-bo quit. In the fallout, reports emerged in local media of a split involving the 34-year-old skipper Son and some of the other players, including Bayern...

Caspar Fownes will consider a supplementary entry for Megastar Heart to take on Ka Ying Rising in the Group One Hong Kong Sprint (1,200m) if the rising sprinter makes another big statement at Sha Tin on Saturday. Plagued by lameness since arriving in Hong Kong last year, the Australian import has delivered on his promise with a pair of outstanding Class Three victories this season, prompting Fownes to label him a 100-rater in waiting. While Fownes isn’t getting too carried away, given Megastar...

Life has come full circle for basketball player Adam Xu. Twelve years after returning from his studies in the United States, the sports management graduate is trying his hand at being the modern athlete-executive in Hong Kong: setting foot in the business world while playing competitive basketball with his original club, Winling. Having played three seasons with the A1 Division team following his return from New York University (NYU) in 2015, Xu said returning to where he started his career was...

Hong Kong has shaken off the Lionel Messi fiasco and a bungled 2025 World Snooker Grand Prix to establish an “international reputation” for delivering world-class sporting events. That is the view of one of the key figures responsible for the prestigious Longines Hong Kong International Horse Show, which returns for its third edition at AsiaWorld-Expo in January. Messi infamously did not budge from the bench when his Inter Miami side played a Hong Kong Stadium exhibition game in February 2024....

Alexis Badel continued his sensational form at Happy Valley with a treble on Wednesday night, with his successful mid-race move aboard consistent galloper Pope Cody the highlight. The French jockey booted home Ricky Yiu Poon-fai’s Lovely Miles and the Douglas Whyte-trained Cheerful Wongchoy before sealing his three-timer with a smart ride aboard Pope Cody in the Class Three Fung Mo Handicap (1,800m). “It’s good. I think I’ve had some good rides – some good draws, some bad draws – but we were...