Hong Kong’s Asian Games medal haul gives reason to be cheerful but reckoning awaits for some

A Hong Kong team “in transition” will battle upwardly mobile and ambitious Cambodia on Saturday for the unremarkable honour of being crowned Fifa Asean Challenge Cup champions. Although the city team copped some flak for their performance in a 2-0 victory over Brunei on Wednesday, having trounced the same opponents 10-0 three years ago, Roberto Losada and his players should be cut some slack after the head coach made nine changes from the 4-0 victory over Laos three days earlier. Equally, Hong...

Hong Kong has become the latest stop on Gianni Infantino’s global tour to shore up support ahead of next year’s Fifa presidential election. The under-fire boss, who is still recovering from the fallout of his ill-fated plan to sell off the World Cup, arrived in the city on Friday and is expected to stay for the inaugural Fifa Asean Challenge Cup final between Hong Kong and Cambodia at Kai Tak Stadium on Saturday. While Eric Fok Kai-shan, chairman of the Football Association of Hong Kong, China...

Manchester City have filed an appeal against an independent ⁠commission ruling that found the club ⁠guilty of serious breaches of the Premier League’s ⁠financial rules, seeking to overturn the verdict and avoid potentially severe sanctions. The league said on Tuesday that City had used “sham” commercial contracts as part of schemes to inflate revenue and understate costs by more than £900 million (US$1.19 billion) over nearly a decade. City were found guilty of all charges relating to breaches...

India will clash with Pakistan in a blockbuster opening-day clash when the “unique and inspiring” Hong Kong Cricket Sixes gets under way later this month. The city team, meanwhile, currently nursing the deep frustration over being eliminated from the Asian Games after their quarter-final with Pakistan on Monday was washed out, will slug it out with Australia and England in an intriguing group. This 2026 edition will be the third iteration since the Sixes was removed from cold storage in...

A week is a long time in racing. In that period, Hong Kong’s mile division has seen dramatic changes. Zac Purton is the new rider of Group One Champions Mile winner My Wish, hopping off Little Paradise who has been transferred from Jimmy Ting Koon-ho to Danny Shum Chap-shing after his disappointing defeat in last Sunday’s Group Three Celebration Cup (1,400m). Invincible Ibis stamped his Group One Hong Kong Mile credentials with victory in the Celebration Cup and while Romantic Warrior’s...

Kimi Antonelli will have to deal with an unfamiliar track and potentially heavy rain as he aims to recover from the “worst weekend” of his 2026 Formula 1 title challenge. The unusually named Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia takes Antonelli and his rivals to a track Formula 1 last visited in 2017 – when he was 11 – in a race hurriedly added to the calendar because of the disruption caused by the Iran war. It will take place at the Sepang International Circuit, about 60 kilometres (35 miles) south...

Caspar Fownes was left scratching his head after Alpha Strike’s wayward win at Sha Tin last time out but is not expecting similar antics when he goes for back-to-back wins at Sha Tin on Sunday. The speedy son of I Am Immortal won his only start in Australia pre-import and made a winning local start last October before going winless in five subsequent runs. He returned this campaign as a much improved model, lowering the colours of Solid State in a devastating performance, despite wandering all...

Hong Kong’s sailors had themselves a golden day at the Asian Games on Friday, while tennis star Coleman Wong Chak-lam has a shot at one of his own, although there is more at stake than just gold in his men’s singles final on Saturday. Victory over China’s Wu Yibing, whom he beat in the third round at the Games in Hangzhou, would earn Wong a place at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Wu also has that target in mind. Saturday could prove to be a historic one for Hong Kong’s athletes. The gold medals...

The newly founded basketball league Project B earlier this week announced the first stop of its inaugural global basketball grand prix: in Hangzhou in January next year. While the debut of the global basketball tour has seen a slight delay – from its intended start this November – and the announcement of the Chinese host city came months later than anticipated, Project B is one of many major sporting events to be held in mainland China between now and the end of next year. “China has always had...

Max Verstappen said he wants to win “at least one race this year” as ⁠the four-time Formula 1 champion sits ⁠in an unfamiliar sixth place in the championship ⁠standings after 15 rounds. Having dominated Formula 1 in recent years, Verstappen has managed only seven podium finishes this season and is still searching for that elusive first win, coming close with second-place finishes in his past two outings in Madrid and Baku. Verstappen’s desperate charge against George Russell on the final...

Most of the hype on the National Day undercard surrounded Hot Delight and Jedi Spurs, but it was Sky Jewellery and Ka Ying Lightning who stole the show and underlined their own immense talent with impressive victories. Sky Jewellery stamped himself a potential Group One Hong Kong Mile contender with a barnstorming return in the Class Two Beijing Handicap (1,400m), improving his record to six wins from nine starts after gunning down Hot Delight late. And Ka Ying Lightning maintained his perfect...

David Eustace has not ruled out international targets for his crack sprinter Colourful King after he ran riot to win the Group Three National Day Cup (1,000m) at Sha Tin on Thursday. Sent off the $2.2 favourite, those who took skinny odds about Colourful King had very few worries, with the Blue Point galloper breaking well and sitting handy behind duelling leaders Beauty Waves and Magical Control. The latter won that argument handily at the 400m pole, but he was always being stalked by Colourful...