5 sporting events to watch out for in 2025, including Hong Kong Sevens and National Games

There may be no Olympics or Paralympics for Hong Kong’s athletes to chase glory at in 2025, but the sporting calendar is still busy. The Cathay/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens will light up the new 50,000-seat stadium at Kai Tak Sports Park in March, and the city will host a variety of events for the National Games in November. Abroad, Fifa’s controversial Club World Cup is still pencilled in for June in the United States, and Tokyo is set to host the World Athletics Championships in September. Here, then, are five sports events you won’t want to miss over the next 12 months. Cathay/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens Where: Kai Tak Stadium When: March 28 to 30 Almost a year since the curtain came down on the Sevens’ four decades at Hong Kong Stadium, the city’s landmark sporting event will make its debut at its newest sporting venue, and no one really knows how that is going to work. Will the architects have managed to recreate the atmosphere of the South Stand? Will fans find themselves lost among the extra 10,000 seats at Kai Tak Stadium? And will anyone be able to stop New Zealand winning? Once again, the men’s and women’s teams from the Land of the Long White Cloud will be among the favourites, although Olympic gold medallists France might pose a threat, even without Antoine Dupont, the world’s best player in any format. Hong Kong’s teams will be in action once again in the invitational Melrose Claymores tournament – taking on Japan, China and Thailand. Club World Cup Where: United States When: June 14 to July 13 Since its first edition in 2000, the Club World Cup has struggled to raise global interest, prompting Fifa to turn the 2025 edition into a 32-club jamboree to be held in the US in June and July. Critics have raised the issues of player welfare and further fixture congestion, while Fifa has pointed to global expansion of the club game. Undoubtedly the event will generate a significant amount of cash for the interested parties. On the field, it might provide a last chance to see Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi, 37, in a top club competition, while holders Manchester City, Barcelona, five-time winners Real Madrid, Inter Milan and Bayern Munich lead Europe’s 12-team charge. Women’s Rugby World Cup Where: England When: August 22 to September 27 When New Zealand edged England 34-31 to win the 2021 edition, the Eden Park crowd numbered 42,579 – a record for the women’s game that marked its increasing popularity. That was subsequently smashed when 58,498 rolled into Twickenham for England’s Six Nations game against France in 2023, but that record is likely to tumble again when Twickenham hosts the 2025 World Cup final on September 27. This 10th edition is the biggest and most ambitious so far as it goes from 12 to 16 teams. At the end of it, New Zealand and England, who have contested the past two finals, are likely to be the teams to beat once more. Undoubtedly the global profile will be helped if the United States sevens star Ilona Maher does a reverse Antoine Dupont and books herself a place in the squad. With more than four million social media followers, Maher is going to be one of the faces of rugby for some years to come. World Athletics Championships Where: Tokyo, Japan When: September 13 to 21 Coming a year after the high of the Olympic Games, there is always the danger that the World Athletics Championships will be a touch flat. But the venue and the competition suggest the 2025 edition will be anything but. Tokyo had the misfortune of hosting the Olympics during Covid, when the athletes competed in front of empty stands. This time, the National Stadium should be rammed to enjoy the rivalries and talents that blossomed in Paris. There will be plenty of eyes on Dutch marathon runner Sifan Hassan and Botswanan sprinter Letsile Tebogo, who were crowned the world athletes of the year for 2024, but also for rising stars Sembo Almayew – the Ethiopian steeplechaser – and Italian triple-jumper Mattia Furlani. Ryder Cup Where: Farmingdale, US When: September 26 to 28 Anyone doubting the popularity of the biennial USA v Europe team golf event need only look at the speed with which the tickets, priced at US$750 a day, sold out to realise the Ryder Cup is still up there as one of the biggest sports events on the planet. The Europeans won back the trophy, commissioned by Samuel Ryder for the first contest in 1927, at the last battle in Italy in 2023 but the Americans will be buoyed, as always, by a rowdy home crowd. The US team may also be encouraged by the introduction of payments, although Rory McIlroy said the Europeans would be glad to pay to play. The venue is the Black Course at Bethpage State Park on Long Island, just outside New York City, which has hosted a number of major championships, including the 2002 and 2009 US Opens, and the 2019 PGA Championship. The National Games Where: Hong Kong, Guangdong, Macau When: November 9 to 21 With an opening ceremony in Guangzhou, a closing ceremony in Shenzhen, and events spread a host of cities, the 15th National Games promises to cap a spectacular sporting year in the best way possible. There will be competitive events made up of typically Olympic sports, and mass-participation ones, such as tenpin bowling. Hong Kong will host fencing, track cycling, rugby sevens, golf, triathlon, beach volleyball, men’s handball and under-22 men’s basketball at Kai Tak, Hong Kong Golf Club, the Coliseum, the velodrome, Victoria Park and along the waterfront at Victoria Harbour.

5 sporting events to watch out for in 2025, including Hong Kong Sevens and National Games

No Olympics, Paralympics or Asian Games, but China’s own multi-sport event is coming to Hong Kong in another packed year of sport

Cathay/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens