XXI Asian Games open in Japan; Chinese team ready for competition

The 2026 Asian Games are approaching, where Indian athletes will compete for medals in several disciplines, including cricket, hockey, badminton, shooting, athletics, kabaddi, boxing, archery, and wrestling.

The Indian delegation will begin its participation in the 2026 Asian Games in the city of Aichi-Nagoya, Japan. The start will be on September 17th with the tekkvball discipline. On September 18th, matches for the women's cricket team against Japan are scheduled, as well as table tennis competitions.

After this, attention will be focused on sports such as badminton, hockey, kabaddi, and table tennis. From September 24th to 29th, athletics will be one of the main venues for India to win medals. Furthermore, numerous opportunities for awards open up in shooting, boxing, swimming, rowing, and wrestling.

In the last week of the Asian Games, important matches are expected in archery, golf, tennis, hockey, volleyball, wrestling, and cricket. In individual competitions, India places hopes on weightlifting, where besides Mirabai Chanu, contenders for medals include Dhyanashri Yadav, Saram Nirupama Devi, and Harjinder Kaur.

In badminton, the men's team will play in the round of 16. The women's hockey team will face Indonesia. In kabaddi, the men's team will compete against Japan, and the women's team against Bangladesh.

A round of 32 finalists is planned in the 70 kg weight category for men in boxing. In MMA, the men's traditional category will be -77kg, and the women's -60kg. Rowing competitions will feature quadruple sculls for men (heats) and double sculls for light men (heats).

Shooting includes competitions in 10m air rifle for men (individual and team events, qualification, final), as well as skeet for men and women (qualification). In table tennis, matches in mixed doubles will take place in the quarterfinals and final.

Swimming schedules distances for men: 50m freestyle, 50m backstroke, 100m breaststroke, and the 4x200m freestyle relay. In table tennis, group and playoff rounds will take place for men's and women's teams, as well as initial rounds for women's doubles.

In Wushu, finals for the women's changquan, as well as elimination rounds for men and women in sanda, are planned.

Athletics events will also feature artistic gymnastics (women's all-around final), badminton (semi-finals for men's and women's teams), boxing (initial rounds in the 60kg and 80kg weight classes), canoe/kayak (various distances and types for men and women), cricket (women's semi-final, depending on qualification), equestrian sports (individual and team events, jumps and medals), esports (e-football), and fencing (individual event in foil for women and sabre for men).

In hockey, there will be a match between Thailand and India in women's Group B. In kabaddi, matches are scheduled between Bangladesh and India (men's Group A) and Iran and India (women's Group A). Rowing will feature finals in single, double, pair, and quadruple sculls for men, as well as finals for the women's quad (depending on qualification).

Shooting also includes competitions in 10m air pistol for women (individual and team events, qualification, final), as well as skeet for men and women (qualification and final). In table tennis, semi-finals for men's and women's teams, as well as initial rounds for singles and doubles, will take place.

Weightlifting has competitions scheduled for men in the 60 kg weight class (Rishikant Singh) and for women in the 49 kg (Mirabai Chanu), 53 kg (Dhyanashri Yadav), 61 kg (Saram Nirupama Devi), and 69 kg (Harjinder Kaur) weight classes.

In Wushu, semi-finals for men and women in sanda in the 56 kg, 75 kg, 52 kg, and 60 kg weight classes are planned (depending on qualification).

Competitions in aquatics and water sports are also scheduled, where the Indian team is ready for the main stage in Aichi-Nagoya 2026.

Vedant Madhavan, the son of famous actor Ra Madhavan, prefers to stay away from public attention and the glamour of show business. He does not intend to follow in his father's footsteps in acting, as he is an Indian athlete.

Vedant Madhavan is a swimmer who will represent India at the 2026 Asian Games. During the coronavirus pandemic, Ra Madhavan moved with his family to Dubai so that his son could receive higher quality training for his developing swimming career. Now, five years later, Vedant is fully prepared to participate in his biggest competitive event—the 2026 Asian Games, which will take place in Japan at the end of the month.

In an interview with the news agency, Vedant emphasized that he is unconcerned about public attention. He stated that as a swimmer, his main goal is to achieve the best result for himself and for his country. He noted that audience attention depends solely on the quality of his performance.

'If you aim to reach the stars, you will at least reach the Moon,' — Vedant Madhavan relies on this principle before participating in the Asian Games. He believes that to achieve success in life, one must completely believe in oneself, being convinced that victory will be achieved regardless of circumstances.

Vedant also shared that he knows how to handle pressure, as it was part of the training process for the Asian Games. He admitted that the burden of expectations and pressure is always present, considering they live in a country with a population of about 140 million people, and everyone is watching him. However, he added that although his identity (being Ra Madhavan's son) might create additional pressure, he does not think about it. He has been trained in such a way that pressure does not have a dominant influence on him; when he is in the pool, he focuses only on himself and the water.