South Korean Asian Games footballers’ joy over national service exemptions raises ire

There are very few certainties in life, although Hong Kong’s men winning rugby sevens gold at the Asian Games could well be one of them. A 26-0 win over China on Saturday sealed a third consecutive title for the city’s team at the Games, and it is now 12 years since they last lost a match at the multi-sport event. Their mainland opponents had already been beaten 22-0 in a Pool A game on Friday, and a first-half double from Harry Sayers ended any threat of an upset. Bryn Phillips added a third,...

Jamie Richards thinks an inside draw could actually help rather than hinder Lahore as he goes for a straight-track hat-trick in the Class Three Shing Mun Handicap (1,000m) at Sha Tin on Sunday. The son of Hellbent has had his share of issues, requiring throat surgery in July 2025 and then bleeding from both nostrils in February of this year, but he roared back to life when returning in May, decimating a Class Four field by two and a half lengths. He backed that up with a gutsy success from a...

Hong Kong windsurfers Wong Tsz-ho and Cheung Tsz-yuet both won Asian Games titles on Saturday, taking the city’s gold medal count into double figures for the first time since its athletes started competing in the multi-sport event in 1954. With Coleman Wong Chak-lam’s triumph in the men’s singles little more than an hour earlier securing a record-equalling eighth gold, victory on the water made it nine and 10 for the delegation in Japan. Not even a lack of wind at Kaiyoh Yacht Harbor could spoil...

Still basking in the glow of Group Three glory on Thursday, David Eustace is keen to continue his momentum with a strong team of eight runners at Sha Tin on Sunday. The British trainer claimed his second Group Three success in Hong Kong when Colourful King cruised to victory in the National Day Cup (1,000m) under Zac Purton. Bidding to add to that success, Eustace is confident in his dirt representatives on the mixed 11-race card, which include Loch Tay and Definitive in the feature Class Two...

Siobhan Haughey called “pressure a privilege” on her way to adding yet more Asian Games gold to an already glittering resume – anyone watching Coleman Wong Chak-lam win his historic men’s singles title on Saturday might have been left wondering if he even knows what pressure is. The Hongkonger needed just one chance to wrap up a straight sets victory over China’s Wu Yibing, and for all the world looked as though he was just firing down aces on the practice court, and not on the verge of doing...

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...