Digest

TRACK AND FIELD

Ex-world champ Yang wins season-opener

Former world champion Yang Jiayu opened her season with a convincing 20km victory in the first leg of the Chinese National Race Walk Grand Prix in Huangshan, Anhui province, on Sunday.

The 27-year-old Yang, the winner of the 20km race walk at the 2017 worlds, emerged triumphant from a duel over the final five kilometers with Ma Zhenxia, the winner of the 2022 World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships.

Yang clocked a world-leading time of 1 hour, 26 minutes and 41 seconds. Ma was two seconds behind in second spot. Four-time world champion Liu Hong took third place in 1:27:35.

The event also served as a qualifier for the 2023 world championships in Budapest in August, with the top three finishers all meeting the entry standard.

According to the selection mechanism of the Chinese Athletics Association, two of the three athletes can earn the chance to compete at this year's Hangzhou Asian Games, based on their performances in Budapest.

TABLE TENNIS

China's Liang, Wang claim WTT Goa titles

Chinese paddlers Liang Jingkun and Wang Yidi emerged as winners in the men's and women's singles respectively at the World Table Tennis (WTT) Star Contender Goa 2023 on Sunday.

Liang won three games in a row from 2-1 down to get past compatriot Lin Shidong 4-2 and be crowned men's singles champion.

In the women's singles final, top seed Wang swept Cheng I-ching of Chinese Taipei 4-0 (11-6, 11-6, 11-8,11-4).

"I'm thrilled to have won here. I'm going to Singapore Smash 2023 next week and hope to perform well there," said Wang.

Japan's Miyu Nagasaki and Miwa Harimoto emerged victorious in the women's doubles. The men's doubles title went to An Jae-hyun and Cho Seung-min of South Korea, with the mixed doubles title going to their compatriots Jang Woo-jin and Jeon Ji-hee.

OLYMPICS

Paris tickets viewed as too pricey, poll finds

Around four out of five French people think tickets for the 2024 Paris Olympics are too expensive, a poll showed Sunday, underlining growing public frustration with organizers over the issue.

A total 82 percent of respondents said that tickets for the Games were "not accessible in terms of price", according to a survey conducted by the Odoxa polling group for the RTL media group and sports betting firm Winamax.

Around the same proportion of people (79 percent) found the ticketing process to be "complicated", the survey found.

The president of the 2024 Paris organizing committee, Tony Estanguet, has been forced on the defensive in recent weeks after the first major release of tickets to the public under a lottery system.

Agencies