Forget the grand final, this is the hardest week in rugby league

The Sydney Morning Herald - Sep 20, 2026

NRL players are hyper-aware that one tiny slip-up in the preliminary final could end their season days short of what could have been a premiership.

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Zverev powers Germany into Davis Cup Final 8

Sep 20, 2026

Zverev powers Germany into Davis Cup Final 8

Alexander Zverev has built on his US Open-winning form to send Germany through to the Davis Cup Final 8 with Spain and Great Britain also through.

Inglis, Ellis steer Aussies to tense win over Zimbabwe

Sep 20, 2026

Inglis, Ellis steer Aussies to tense win over Zimbabwe

Australia have beaten Zimbabwe by one wicket in the third ODI to wrap up a 3-0 series clean sweep in Harare, with Josh Inglis smacking a fine century.

Chinese 13-year-old swimmer Yu seals win at Asian Games

Sep 20, 2026

Chinese 13-year-old swimmer Yu seals win at Asian Games

China's 13-year-old swimming star Yu Zidi has won the women's 200m butterfly at the Asian Games in Tokyo.

S. Korea to start gold medal campaign on 1st day of medal events

Sep 20, 2026

S. Korea to start gold medal campaign on 1st day of medal events

NAGOYA, Japan — South Korea is set to begin its gold medal campaign in earnest Sunday as the medal race at the 20th Asian Games got underway in Nagoya and Aichi Prefecture. With 1,051 athletes and officials in action, South Korea is targeting up to 45 gold medals and a third-place finish in the medal table, behind China and Japan. The first gold could come from the women's modern pentathlon. Seong Seung-min, who helped South Korea win bronze in the women's team event in the previous Asian Games, won the 2024 World Modern Pentathlon Championships to become the first South Korean woman to win a world title in the event. At the Paris Summer Olympics later that year, she became the first Asian female pentathlete to win an Olympic medal. Three other South Korean pentathletes — Kim Un-ju, Shin Su-min and Jang Ha-eun — will also compete in the 18-athlete final. Male pentathletes will take the field later Sunday, with reigning Asian Games champion Jun Woong-tae going for his third straight individual gold medal and second team gold alongside Seo Chang-wan, Lee Jong-hyeon and Kim Young-ha. Wo

Pentathlete Seong Seung-min wins S. Korea's 1st gold at Asian Games

Sep 20, 2026

Pentathlete Seong Seung-min wins S. Korea's 1st gold at Asian Games

ANJO, Japan — Seong Seung-min brought home South Korea's first gold medal at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, winning the women's individual modern pentathlon event. Seong finished first with 1,492 points in the sport's final after competing in five events — fencing, swimming, obstacle course racing and laser run, a combination of running and shooting — at Anjo Sports Park in Anjo, just southeast of the main host city of Nagoya, Japan. She became the first South Korean female pentathlete to win the individual event, ending China's streak of four consecutive gold medals. The silver medal went to Zhang Mingyu of China and bronze to Wu Xiyao of China. Her compatriot Kim Un-ju ranked seventh with 1,399 points and Shin Su-min 12th with 1,380 points. Led by Seong's gold medal performance, South Korea finished second in the team event, following China. In the team event, scores of the top three athletes from a country are combined to determine the rankings. As a former world champion and an Olympic bronze medalist, Seong was considered a strong gold medal contender for the women's modern pentat

Shin Ji-eun wins bronze in cycling for S. Korea's 1st medal

Sep 20, 2026

Shin Ji-eun wins bronze in cycling for S. Korea's 1st medal

NAGOYA, Japan — South Korea's first medal of the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games came from road cycling on Sunday, as Shin Ji-eun grabbed bronze in the women's individual time trial event. Shin finished third with a time of 36:56.14 at Shinshiro Cycling Road Course in Shinshiro, some 60 kilometers east of the main host city, Nagoya. Rinata Sultanova of Kazakhstan claimed the gold medal in 36:23.72, and Zhang Hao of China won silver in 36:28.40. Sunday is the first day of the medal race following the opening ceremony from the previous night. South Korea is targeting around 45 gold medals at this year's Asiad, which will conclude Oct. 4. In Sunday's race, Shin covered her first lap in 12:58.31 to rank fourth. She moved up to third after finishing her second lap in 11:51.39 and came home in 12:06.44 to clinch her bronze medal. Shin, 24, came into the Asian Games in strong form. She finished third in the individual road race and fourth in the individual time trial at the Asian Road Cycling Championships in Saudi Arabia this past February. Then at the Asian Track Cycling Championships in the Philipp

S. Korea wins women's team bronze in soft tennis

Sep 20, 2026

S. Korea wins women's team bronze in soft tennis

NAGOYA, Japan — South Korea won bronze in the women's team event in soft tennis at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Sunday, its first medal in the sport at this year's competition. South Korea lost to Chinese Taipei 2-1 in the semifinals at Nagoya City Higashiyama Park Tennis Center in Nagoya, central Japan. There is no bronze medal contest in soft tennis and the two losers of the semifinals are both awarded bronze medals. Earlier in the day, the Philippines took the first bronze following its loss to Japan. The team matches take the best-of-three format, and the side that wins two matches first is the winner. Teams play two best-of-nine doubles matches and one best-of-seven singles match. In the opening doubles match, Lee Su-jin and Kim Han-sul of South Korea lost to Hsu Chiao-ying and Huang Shih-yuan 5-4. In the singles match that followed, South Korea's Hwang Jeong-mi defeated Chiang Min-yu 4-3 by rallying from a 3-2 deficit. But in the final doubles match, Eom Ye-jin and Kim Yeon-hwa fell to Zhou Yan-zhen and Lo Shu-ting 5-4. The South Korean men were also scheduled to take on Chinese

Lee Jun-suk becomes inaugural gold medalist in men's teqball

Sep 20, 2026

Lee Jun-suk becomes inaugural gold medalist in men's teqball

NAGOYA, Japan — Lee Jun-suk soared to gold in the men's singles teqball event at the Asian Games on Sunday, becoming the inaugural champion of the brand new sport making its Asiad debut. Lee defeated Ali Jalil Mezher Alelayawi of Iraq 2-0 (12-11, 12-5) in the final at Nagoya City Higashi Sports Center in Nagoya, Japan. Lee, 27, went undefeated on his way to the top of the podium, having won all five group matches and then both of his knockout contests. Lee's was South Korea's third gold medal of the Asian Games here. Invented in Hungary in 2014, teqball combines elements of football, table tennis, freestyle skills and sepaktakraw. It is played on a curved table, with players allowed to hit the ball with any part of their body except the hands and arms. A player must return the ball with a maximum of three touches and cannot touch the ball with the same body part twice in a row. Lee Jun-suk and his men's doubles partner Lee Tae-been had lost to Alelayawi and Abdulrahman Ahmed Radhi in the quarterfinals by 2-0 (12-9, 12-7) on Thursday, and Lee Jun-suk had his moment in the singles this tim

S. Korea cruises past Kazakhstan for 2nd straight win in women's handball

Sep 20, 2026

S. Korea cruises past Kazakhstan for 2nd straight win in women's handball

South Korea pounded Kazakhstan 42-18 for its second straight win in women's handball at the Asian Games on Sunday. Woo Bitna led the onslaught with 10 goals as South Korea enjoyed an easy win at Kasugai City Gymnasium in Kasugai, just northeast of the main host city, Nagoya. Lee Won-jung and Jo Eun-been had five goals apiece. The win came a day after a 48-16 rout of Hong Kong on Saturday. The women's handball tournament will not have a knockout phase this year. The top three nations out of seven after round-robin play will be the medalists. South Korea will next play Uzbekistan on Wednesday, China on Friday, Vietnam on Saturday and Japan next Sunday. Barring upsets along the way, the South Korea-Japan showdown will likely determine the gold medal. South Korea held a 4-3 lead early and then blew the game wide open with a 12-1 run, scoring one fast-break goal after another. South Korea led 18-8 at halftime and then outscored Kazakhstan 24-10 in the latter half. Coached by Lee Kye-chung, South Korea is trying to win its first women's handball title since 2018. Lee was also the team's head coach

Ban Hyo-jin wins bronze in women's 10m air rifle

Sep 20, 2026

Ban Hyo-jin wins bronze in women's 10m air rifle

NAGOYA — Reigning Olympic champion Ban Hyo-jin claimed bronze in the women's 10-meter air rifle shooting event at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Sunday. Ban, the 2024 Olympic gold medalist in this event, celebrated her 19th birthday with her first Asian Games medal, after finishing with 230.4 points in the final at Aichi Prefectural General Shooting Gallery in Toyota, some 25 kilometers east of Nagoya. Hinata Taichi of Japan won gold with the Asian Games record score of 253 points, and Elavenil Valarivan of India took silver with 252.4 points. In the eight-shooter final, two series of five shots were fired at first, with shooters given 250 seconds per series and the perfect score being 10.9. Those 10 shots were followed by 14 single shots, fired on command within 50 seconds per shot. Eliminations of the lowest-scoring finalists began after the 12th shot and continued after every two shots until the gold and the silver medals were decided. Ban was in third place after the opening two series at 104.9 points, with Valarivan leading the way at 106 points and Misaki Nobata of Japan in secon

S. Korea wins Asian Games gold in team modern pentathlon event

Sep 20, 2026

S. Korea wins Asian Games gold in team modern pentathlon event

South Korea won gold in the men's modern pentathlon team event at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Sunday, successfully defending its title. In the men's modern pentathlon final, South Korean athletes Jun Woong-tae, Lee Jong-hyeon and Seo Chang-wan scored a combined 4,779 points after competing in five events — fencing, swimming, obstacle course racing and laser run, a combination of running and shooting — at Anjo Sports Park in Anjo, just southeast of the main host city of Nagoya, Japan. It was South Korea's second consecutive gold medal in the team event, following its victory at the Hangzhou Asian Games. In the team event, the scores of each country's top three athletes in the individual competition are combined to determine the medal standings. Jun finished second, Lee third, and Seo fifth, earning a total of 4,779 points, outscoring China with 4,768 points and Kazakhstan with 4,647 points.

S. Korea takes 1 silver, 2 bronze medals on Day 1 of swimming

Sep 20, 2026

S. Korea takes 1 silver, 2 bronze medals on Day 1 of swimming

TOKYO (Yonhap) — South Korea picked up one silver and two bronze medals on the first day of swimming at the Asian Games in Japan on Sunday, a solid start for the country trying to match a heady success from three years ago. Kim Young-beom and Hwang Sun-woo shared the podium in the men's 100-meter freestyle at Tokyo Aquatics Centre in Tokyo, as they got silver and bronze behind Pan Zhanle of China. Kim clocked 47.65 seconds and Hwang finished in 47.79, while Pan touched the pad in 47.61. Then in the men's 100m backstroke, Lee Ju-ho collected his third straight bronze with a time of 53.94 seconds. Xu Jiayu of China won gold in 51.98, and Hidekazu Takehara of Japan was the silver medalist with 53.93. Elsewhere, South Korea had a quartet of fourth-place finishes. Kim Yun-hui finished fourth in the women's 200m butterfly in 2:09.81, just 0.14 second back of the bronze medalist, Misa Okuzono of Japan. In the next final, Kim Min-suk ended up in fourth place in the men's 200m individual medley with a time of 1:59.69. China's Wang Shun grabbed the bronze in 1:57.14. Then in the women's 1,500m, Kim

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