Chasing Dragons: Seven Players One Final Away From Completing PPA Tour Asia Medal Set
All year, players have been following the dragon across Asia. Now, at the Hang Seng Bank Hong Kong Slam 2026, it’s time to catch it.
Seven players arrive at Kai Tak Arena next week with the body and tail already in hand. Make a final, and the dragon is complete. Two of them are chasing something even rarer: a golden dragon.
Tama Shimabukuro: Three Events, Three Paths
Fifteen years old, seven golds in 2026. Tama Shimabukuro’s résumé reads like a veteran’s. He earned his body with Men’s Singles gold at the Leapmotor Kuala Lumpur Cup, beating Noe Khlif, 11-8, 11-5, and his tail came from any of six golds, starting with Mixed Doubles at the Panas Kuala Lumpur Open.
At Kai Tak, every event he plays is a route to the head. He’s the No. 6 seed in men’s singles. In Men’s Doubles, he’s the No. 4 seed with JW Johnson, a new partnership already turning heads in the US and playing its first event in Asia. Then there’s mixed doubles with Sahra Dennehy, who won gold with him in Tokyo and again in Shenzhen, dropping just seven points in the entire final.
Alix Truong: The All-Gold Set
Shimabukuro and Alix Truong are the two players with gold on both pieces. Win a title in Hong Kong, and they leave with a golden dragon. They built their tails on the same court, winning mixed doubles at the Panas Kuala Lumpur Open in May.
Truong’s body came from Women’s Doubles gold with Jessie Irvine at the Leapmotor Kuala Lumpur Cup, in their first event together in Asia. They’re unbeaten as a team on this tour. In mixed doubles, she partners Christopher Haworth on his Asia debut, and Truong has already won mixed gold on the tour with three different partners. Haworth gets his shot at being the fourth.
The Aussies, the Veterans, and a Heartbreak
Dennehy and Danni-Elle Townsend took the body last month in Malaysia, and their tail came with Women’s Doubles gold at the Sansan Tokyo Open after an 11-4, 11-5 final. They’re paired again in Hong Kong. Dennehy is also the No. 3 seed in women’s singles, while Townsend debuts a new mixed partnership with World Mixed No. 7 Federico Staksrud.
Hien Truong has been waiting since May. Silver at the MB Hanoi Cup gave him the body, and gold at the Panas Kuala Lumpur Open gave him the tail. He teams with Quan Do in men’s doubles, and reunites in mixed with Sophia Nhi Huynh, with whom he took silver in Shenzhen, losing to Shimabukuro and Dennehy.
Len Yang returns to where it started, having won his first Asia men’s doubles gold in Hong Kong in 2025. His partner is Collin Johns, with whom he won three golds this year, and the pair lead the men’s doubles medal count, so their No. 8 seeding undersells them.
And then there’s Joey Wild, who knows how close the dragon can get. He and Townsend led 7-2 in the deciding game of the Kuala Lumpur Cup mixed doubles final and lost, 12-10. That silver gave him his body, and he’s entered in all three events.
Where the Dragon Came From
None of this would be possible without the medal design that started it all. Back in January, the PPA Tour Asia unveiled a new medal for 2026 that pays homage to the culture and traditions of Asia. It comes in three interlocking pieces, one for each tier of the calendar: Open, Cup, and Slam. A podium finish gives a player one piece, and podium finishes in all three tiers let that player complete a ceremonial fan marked by a dragon winding through the pieces.
The dragon sits at the heart of Asian mythology. It’s “long” in China, “rong” in Vietnam, “naga” in Thailand, and “ryu” in Japan. The names differ, but the meaning is largely the same: power, prosperity, and good fortune. Deep royal blue, the colour of imperial courts and nobility, sets the creature against the precious metal, and white lotus flowers add an ornamental touch. The lotus grows in mud and rises above the surface, a symbol of perseverance and transformation that fits the athlete’s journey to the top of the podium.
Fans, meanwhile, carry ceremonial weight across Asia, opened at weddings, presented to royalty, and used to mark moments of significance. The finished medal radiates outward, locked at the centre, telling a story of victories across the continent.
It also fits the tour’s calendar. The dragon took off in Hanoi, whose old name, Thăng Long, means “rising dragon,” where the MB Hanoi Cup opened the season in April. Nine stops later, the journey ends in Hong Kong with the final piece still up for grabs.
Seven players. One shot at completing the set. Kai Tak Arena, 19 to 25 October. Tickets are on sale now.
