Nagoya, Japan- Under the slogan “Imagine One Asia,” Nagoya, Japan’s third-largest city, is fully prepared to host the 20th Asian Games. Asia’s biggest sporting event is officially set to begin on Saturday. The Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games will officially open with an opening ceremony at the Paloma Mizuho Stadium on Saturday.
Several events—including women’s cricket, women’s football, teqball, basketball, modern pentathlon, women’s volleyball and soft tennis—have already begun ahead of the official opening ceremony. The Asian Games will conclude on October 4.
Japan’s Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako are also expected to attend the opening ceremony. Japan has deployed around 10,000 police officers and security personnel specifically for the opening ceremony.
More than 17,000 athletes from across Asia are currently in Aichi-Nagoya to take part in the continental sporting extravaganza. The number of participating athletes is even higher than at the Olympic Games. The Asian Games are regarded as the world’s second-largest multi-sport event after the Olympics. However, in terms of the number of sports and athletes, the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games are larger than the most recent Paris Olympics.
Apart from Nagoya, some events will also be held in Tokyo, Shizuoka, Gifu and Osaka. A total of 54 venues are being used for the Games.
While the Paris Olympics featured 32 sports, the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games include 43 sports. In addition to all the Olympic sports, the Games have also introduced mixed martial arts (MMA), which has gained considerable popularity worldwide. Padel, teqball, surfing, virtual taekwondo and freestyle BMX are also making their Asian Games debuts.
Nepal will compete in 21 sports, with 135 Nepali athletes currently in Japan. The delegation is two athletes smaller than initially announced. Dance sport, which was to have only one athlete, was withdrawn, while Wushu athlete Mukesh Pandit could not travel to the Asian Games due to illness.
In terms of team size, Nepal’s delegation is smaller than those sent to several recent editions of the Asian Games. Nevertheless, Nepal is hoping to win more medals this time. The country has set a target of winning medals in double digits, including a gold medal.
Unlike in the past, when preparations often began only a few months before the Games, Nepali teams have been preparing for the Asian Games for the past three years. All teams had been undergoing intensive high-level training camps for the past two months. Several Nepali teams also travelled to Japan after completing overseas training programs.
A total of 469 gold medals will be contested across 71 disciplines in 43 sports at the Games. Nepal’s national women’s kabaddi captain Manamati Bista and boxer Chandra Bahadur Thapa Magar will carry Nepal’s national flag during the opening ceremony.
Nepal’s Long Asian Games Journey
Nepal is among the fortunate nations to have participated in the very first Asian Games. When the inaugural Asian Games were held, only 11 countries took part. Nepal has made a significant contribution in terms of participation, having competed in every edition except the second Asian Games.
However, Nepal has remained far behind many other Asian nations in terms of sporting performance. Even so, the country’s record of winning at least one medal at every Asian Games since 1986 is significant.
Nepal has yet to win a gold medal at the Asian Games. The silver medals won by taekwondo athlete Sabita Rajbhandari at the 13th Asian Games in Bangkok, by the paragliding team at the 18th Asian Games in Jakarta-Palembang, and by karate athlete Erika Gurung at the previous edition remain Nepal’s best results at the continental Games.
Nepal began its medal-winning journey at the Asian Games held in Seoul, South Korea. So far, Nepal has won 26 medals—three silver and 23 bronze—at the Asian Games.
Taekwondo has contributed the most, with one silver and 13 bronze medals. Karate has won one silver and two bronze medals, paragliding has won one silver, boxing has contributed seven bronze medals, and kabaddi has won one bronze.
The biggest challenge facing Nepal at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games is therefore to win its first-ever gold medal while maintaining its uninterrupted medal-winning streak.
Nepal’s athletes can draw inspiration from that long-standing record. This time, Nepal is particularly hopeful of winning medals in karate, wushu, boxing and cricket, among other sports.
