Nagoya [Japan], September 19 (ANI): The twentieth Asian Games have been formally opened with a ceremony on the Paloma Mizuho Stadium right here on Saturday, with double Olympic medallist Manu Bhaker and kabaddi star Pawan Sehrawat main the Indian contingent as flagbearers.
India is represented by a 501-athlete contingent competing throughout 36 sports activities on the continental multi-sport occasion, which runs from September 19 to October 4.
Bhaker, who received two bronze medals on the Paris 2024 Olympics, shared the flag-bearing honour with Sehrawat, a member of India’s gold-medal-winning males’s kabaddi workforce on the earlier Asian Games.
Sehrawat was named the male flagbearer instead of shot-putter Tajinderpal Singh Toor attributable to technical points.
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The opening ceremony marked the formal begin of the Games, bringing collectively athletes from 45 nations and areas who will compete throughout 43 sports activities and 469 medal occasions.
For Bhaker, the event carried a private and emotional significance as she remembered her late coach Jaspal Rana, who handed away in June.
“I miss Jaspal, sir, a lot. He was special to me; it’s a very big emotional moment for me,” Bhaker informed ANI after main the Indian contingent on the ceremony.
Rana, a Dronacharya Award-winning coach and recipient of the Arjuna Award and Padma Shri, died in New Delhi on June 13 after battling well being problems. He had been present process remedy at a hospital in South Delhi.
A former worldwide shooter with an illustrious profession spanning greater than three a long time, Rana received 15 medals, together with 9 gold, throughout 4 editions of the Commonwealth Games, making him India’s most profitable athlete on the occasion.
He additionally made a major contribution to Indian taking pictures as a coach and high-performance coach. Rana had been serving as India’s high-performance coach for the 25m pistol occasion since February 2025 and performed a key position in Bhaker’s growth.
Bhaker made historical past on the Paris Olympics by turning into the primary athlete from unbiased India to win two medals in a single version of the Games. She will compete within the girls’s 10m air pistol, girls’s 25m pistol and 10m air pistol combined workforce occasions in Aichi-Nagoya.
Sehrawat, in the meantime, can be aiming to assist India defend its males’s kabaddi title. India has received gold in eight of the 9 editions of the Asian Games wherein males’s kabaddi has featured, with the exception being the 2018 Games, the place the workforce settled for bronze.
At Hangzhou 2023, India defeated Iran 33-29 within the closing to reclaim the gold medal.
India will look to construct on its efficiency at Hangzhou, the place it completed fourth within the medal standings with 106 medals, together with 28 gold, 38 silver and 40 bronze.
The Indian contingent options 5 particular person Olympic medallists, though defending javelin throw champion Neeraj Chopra has withdrawn from the Games attributable to an ankle harm.
PV Sindhu will spearhead India’s badminton marketing campaign, whereas Mirabai Chanu will lead the weightlifting problem. Lovlina Borgohain will compete in boxing, and Aman Sehrawat will characterize India in wrestling.
India’s boxers arrive in Japan after a record-breaking Commonwealth Games marketing campaign, the place they secured 10 medals, together with seven gold.
Athletics is anticipated to be a major a part of India’s marketing campaign, with greater than 70 monitor and subject athletes set to compete. Gulveer Singh, Tejaswin Shankar and Olympian Sarvesh Kushare are among the many athletes to look at.
Toor, who was initially named as a flagbearer, will goal to win a 3rd consecutive Asian Games gold medal within the males’s shot put. He received the title at Jakarta 2018 and retained it at Hangzhou 2023 with a throw of 20.36 metres.
India will even search to defend its males’s and ladies’s titles in cricket and kabaddi, together with the boys’s hockey crown.
In males’s cricket, Shreyas Iyer will lead the title defence within the T20 competitors, with teenage batter Vaibhav Sooryavanshi included within the squad. The girls’s workforce, additionally defending champions, can be led by T20 captain Harmanpreet Kaur.
Hockey will carry added significance on the Games, with each the boys’s and ladies’s tournaments serving as qualification occasions for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. The winners of the 2 competitions will safe direct qualification for the Games.
India will even have alternatives to earn LA 2028 quota locations in archery, crusing, squash, browsing and tennis.
In squash, younger Anahat Singh will return after contributing to India’s girls’s workforce bronze at Hangzhou 2023. She additionally received a combined doubles bronze alongside Abhay Singh and can be among the many gamers anticipated to function prominently in India’s marketing campaign.
Japan is internet hosting the Asian Games for the third time, having beforehand staged the continental occasion in Tokyo in 1958 and Hiroshima in 1994.
With the opening ceremony full, India’s athletes will now flip their consideration to competitors throughout the following two weeks, in search of so as to add to the nation’s document medal haul from Hangzhou and make their mark in Aichi-Nagoya. (ANI)