medal

Lin bags her second Asian Games gold medal, three years on from her success in Hangzhou in the 57kg class.

Taiwan boxer Lin Yu-ting, the Olympic champion who found herself embroiled in a major gender row at Paris 2024, has won gold at the Asian Games.

Lin beat China’s Yang Chengyu 5-0 on Friday in the women’s 60kg (132lb) final in Nishio, Japan, giving her a second Asian Games gold after winning in the 57kg (126lb) class in Hangzhou, China, three years ago.

The 30-year-old was backed by a small pocket of vocal Taiwan supporters in the Nishio Gymnasium in Nishio, southeast of Nagoya.

Towering over her opponent, Lin used her superior reach to take control of the bout and had a clear advantage heading into the third and final round.

She held off a late assault from Yang to take gold, celebrating with the minimum of fuss.

Lin told the AFP news agency before the Games that she had considered retiring after the Paris Olympics but wanted to carry on fighting in part to defy those who questioned her eligibility.

Lin and Imane Khelif of Algeria were disqualified from the 2023 world championships by the International Boxing Association (IBA) after the organisation said they failed unspecified gender eligibility tests.

However, the International Olympic Committee allowed them to compete in Paris, saying they were victims of “a sudden and arbitrary decision” by the widely discredited IBA. Both went on to win gold.

Great Britain’s impressive rider line-up for cycling’s Road World Championships means the team have rarely stood a better chance of glory.

For the men, there is also the helpful factor of Slovenian superstar Tadej Pogacar being absent, after he suffered crash injuries during the Vuelta a Espana in August.

But at the same time a new generation of British cycling talent is rising, and GB riders could take the coveted winner’s rainbow jersey in the men’s and women’s road races in Montreal this weekend.

While Pogacar crashed out of the Vuelta, the race showcased the continued emergence of 21-year-old British rider Matthew Brennan, who won five stages of the three-week endurance test for Visma Lease a Bike – a record for a Grand Tour debutant.

There are currently 49 British riders competing across the men’s and women’s world tours – more than ever before – and some of those will compete in this World Championship weekend.

The road race itself is much like a stage of the Tour de France, but in which riders compete in national squads, looking to out-think and out-muscle each other.

A lot of the British potential is thanks to the inspiration of British cycling’s golden period, which featured great success from the likes of Team Sky, Mark Cavendish and Lizzie Deignan across the past 15 years.

Deignan won the road race in 2015, while Cavendish triumphed in 2011.

In total, British riders have won the elite road races seven times, including Tom Simpson (1965), Beryl Burton (1960 & 1967), Mandy Jones (1982) and Nicole Cooke (2008).

Amid an unpredictable performance landscape for the women, Britain’s best young female riders have a chance to infiltrate the once-dominant Dutch contingent.

Tour de France Femmes winner Demi Vollering remains the sport’s best overall, but Briton Zoe Backstedt’s brilliant second place in Sunday’s Worlds time trial was her first shot at the elite level.

She will be involved in Saturday’s women’s road race, and Olympic mountain bike gold medallist and Tour de France stage winner Tom Pidcock will race for the men on Sunday.

“You need a lot of faith in your team to be present at the front,” Backstedt told BBC Sport. “You need to talk, hear, see and feel each other to know they are there, especially as there’s no team radio.

“Obviously it’s about knowing the big names to follow. If Demi or Kasia [Niewiadoma] go off the front, you know it’s a dangerous move and you need to be there.

“But we’ve got a super strong team, and if any one of us was with them, we all could stand have a chance.”

The women’s road race is 180.4km long, which includes eight laps of Montreal, and the men’s 273.2km race incorporates 12 circuits.

Chinese schoolgirl Yu Zidi lit up the opening day of the Asian Games with a record‑breaking 200m butterfly gold medal secured by a performance she described as “only so‑so”.

The 13‑year‑old claimed her first major gold in two minutes 05.08 seconds, an Asian Games record that took almost half a second off compatriot Zhang Yufei’s mark from three years ago.

Yu, who is strongly tipped to make an impact at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, won by over three seconds in Tokyo from her team-mate Chang Mohan.

“It was only so-so,” a smiling Yu said after receiving her medal, adding that her butterfly technique “is still slightly lacking”.

“I hope I can swim even faster. I improved my time by 0.9 seconds here, and I believe I will perform better next time,” she continued.

Yu, who will take part in two more individual events at the Asian Games, became the youngest ever swimmer to win a medal at the World Championships when she took bronze as a 12-year-old as part of China’s 4x200m freestyle relay team last year.

After claims she is sexualising women’s sport, the criticism of Sydney Sweeney’s new advert is growing and TeamGB golden girl Amy Hunt explained why she has spoken out

Athletes have come out in force to condemn a sports betting advert featuring a naked Sydney Sweeney as Team GB’s golden girl doubled down on her criticism.

The American has been slammed following the campaign, which sees the 29-year-old with no clothes on as she pretends to play a number of different sports. The ad, for US sports prediction market company Novig, has been bashed with many suggesting sportswomen are still being defined by their appearance – and not their achievements.

British sprinter Amy Hunt, the four-time European champion, made a cutting comment after her race at the inaugural World Athletics Championship in Budapest on Sunday, saying: “Sydney Sweeney, this is what women in sport look like,” in her interview with BBC Sport after.

She is far from the only athlete hitting out. Sydney’s decision to take part has been widely criticised, with retired swimmer Ariarne Titmus saying she understood this type of “bulls**t”marketing” to be a thing of the past.

Water polo silver medallist Tilly Kearns joined the anger, saying, “I absolutely f***g hate Sydney Sweeney’s new sports ad”, while world champion boxer Skye Nicolson said the ad was making a “mockery” of women in sport.

Amy has spoken more about her decision to join the outrage, and appeared on Good Morning Britain to discuss her post-race remarks.

Telling presenters Susanna Reid and Ed Balls about her reasons for speaking out, the star sprinter said there are already enough barriers in place.

“I think when we’re trying to provide role models for young people and young women in sport,” she said. “We really want to show that it’s about what your body can do, not so much what it looks like. I think when we see the stats of 64 per cent of young girls drop out of exercise and sport before they reach the age of 16.

“We don’t need to place any kind of barrier whatsoever in their way in terms of providing the opportunity and the empowerment for them to still exercise, whatever that looks like, professional or kind of just going to do a park run with your friends.

“So it’s about empowering young girls and young women and young people to show that you really can just get out there and you don’t have to worry what you look like. You don’t have to worry about what you’re wearing.”

When grilled on whether the ad could impact how men view female athletes, she agreed and went on: “That was a big thing this year for us with the introduction of new kind of broadcasting regulations, in showing the correct or the more appropriate angles of women competing.

“It’s important to show kind of young people that it’s okay to be whoever you want to be, to wear whatever you want to wear, to look however you want to look, and you can achieve your dreams.”

While some suggested anger should be directed at the betting firm rather than the Euphoria actress, Novig said in a statement that Sydney is not just the face of the campaign, but has joined as “strategic partner and equity holder”.

Sydney finally responded and in a statement, said the campaign was “about embracing a fun idea”. She went on: “The concept is simple: cut through the noise and put the focus entirely on sports. The campaign brings that idea to life with confidence, humour and a playful edge.”

Watch Good Morning Britain weekdays from 6am on ITV

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