Asian Games 2026 Live Updates: Gonsalves-Beg pair starts India’s Asian Games campaign with teqball

Asian Games 2026 Live: Despite Neeraj Chopra’s absence, Indian athletics could turn in a fine show Javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, who led India’s 1-2 finish in the men’s event at the last Asian Games in Hangzhou, is out with an injury. Two-time defending champion in men’s shot put Tajinderpal Singh is not in his best form and women’s javelin throw gold medallist Annu Rani failed to make the cut. Will it then be a tough outing for India’s athletes? The answer could surprise many because the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) has nurtured a new breed of talented athletes capable of repeating or even improving the performance from the last edition of the Games held in China..Asian Games 2026 Live: Indian athletes land in Japan to a forgettable welcome Japan’s reputation for organisational efficiency lay in tatters as the rowing and shooting contingent faced unexpected ordeals upon arrival. A majority of the rowing squad were left stranded without accommodation, some of their names actually missing from the accreditation system. “Only three of the 22 men’s athletes have accommodation against their names. And the names of three of the five women rowers (Poonam, Aleena Anto and Anshika Bharati) are not registered with the hosts even though they all have valid accreditation,” said a Rowing Federation of India (RFI) official..Asian Games 2026 Live: India schedule today (IST) Teqball Men’s doubles Group B: Declan Marshall Gonsalves/Mohamed Anas Imran Beg vs Truong Giang Ba/Anh Khoa Le (Vietnam) - 12:30 PM Men’s doubles Group B: Declan Marshall Gonsalves/Mohamed Anas Imran Beg vs Junsuk Lee/Taebeen Lee (Republic of Korea) - 1:00 PM Men’s doubles quarter-finals: Gonsalves/Beg (subject to qualification) - 3:30 PM onwards Men’s doubles repechage: Gonsalves/Beg (subject to qualification) - 4:00 PM onwards.Asian Games 2026 Live: Three Indians in teqball’s five medal events Teqball will feature five medal events at Aichi-Nagoya 2026 — men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles — with competition running from September 17 to 20. Each event begins with a round-robin group stage before moving into the knockout rounds, which also include a repechage pathway. India have three athletes competing across these events. Besides partnering Gonsalves in the men’s doubles, Anas Imran Beg will team up with Quimcy Dsouza in the mixed doubles, while Dsouza will also compete in the women’s singles. Although the Asian Games officially run from September 19 to October 4, several sports, including teqball, begin competition before the opening ceremony, giving India an early opportunity to make an impact at the Aichi-Nagoya Games..Asian Games 2026 Live: Five little-known sports India will compete in The Asian Games have always been more than a showcase of the sports that dominate television screens. From cricket and hockey to athletics, shooting, badminton and wrestling, some disciplines have a deep following in India. But Aichi-Nagoya 2026 will also put the spotlight on sports that remain largely unfamiliar to the country's mainstream sporting audience. The 20th edition of the Asian Games will be held in Japan from September 19 to October 4, with around 11,000 athletes from 45 countries and regions competing across 43 sports. India will be represented by 503 athletes across a wide range of disciplines. Some of those sports are familiar internationally but still developing a following in India. Mixed martial arts, surfing, esports and padel, for instance, are expanding rapidly and have attracted growing global attention. Then there are sports such as Teqball, Kurash, Soft Tennis, Sepak Takraw and Sport Climbing. They may not yet command the same audience as cricket, badminton or hockey in India, but they will be part of the country's Asian Games campaign in Japan..Asian Games 2026 Live: World Championships medallists eye knockout stage Gonsalves and Beg will enter the men’s doubles competition with international experience behind them, having already made history as India’s first World Championships medallists in teqball. The pair won a bronze medal in men’s doubles at the 2024 World Championships in Vietnam and will now look to carry that momentum into the sport’s Asian Games debut. Drawn in Group B, the Indians are scheduled to face Vietnam’s Truong Giang Ba and Anh Khoa Le in their opening match at 12:30 PM IST at the Nagoya City Higashi Sports Center. They will then take on the Republic of Korea’s Junsuk Lee and Taebeen Lee at 1:00 PM IST. The top contenders will then move into the knockout stage, with the competition also offering a repechage route..Asian Games 2026 Live: Teqball gives India an early start India’s Asian Games 2026 campaign will get underway with teqball, two days before the official opening ceremony in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan. The Indian men’s doubles pair of Declan Marshall Gonsalves and Mohamed Anas Imran Beg will be the country’s first athletes in action at the continental Games today. Invented in Hungary, teqball combines elements of football and table tennis, with players using a curved table to exchange the ball without letting it touch the ground. The sport can broadly be described as a blend of freestyle football and sepak takraw, played on a curved, table tennis-style surface. Teqball will make its Asian Games debut at Aichi-Nagoya 2026, adding an unfamiliar but increasingly popular discipline to the competition..Asian Games 2026 Live: A floating athletes' village — and an unprecedented security operation The logistics of accommodating such a huge gathering have produced one of the most unusual features of Aichi-Nagoya 2026: there is no conventional dedicated athletes' village. Instead, as many as 5,000 athletes and officials are expected to stay aboard the Italian cruise liner Costa Serena, while others will be accommodated in hotels and temporary wooden containers. Organisers had initially planned for around 15,000 athletes and officials, but the registered number reportedly rose to about 17,000 around August. The accommodation crunch has been compounded by late arrivals, new sports such as teqball and padel, and the varying sizes of delegations. China is sending around 815 representatives, while Hong Kong, despite having a population of only about 7.5 million, is sending roughly 580. Security will be another huge undertaking, with Japanese media reporting that around 10,000 police and security personnel will be deployed around Saturday's opening ceremony in Nagoya, which will be attended by Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako..Asian Games 2026 Live: Neeraj Chopra's absence changes the javelin equation The men's javelin throw will have an intriguing South Asian dimension, particularly after Sri Lanka's Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage produced a major breakthrough on the international stage. Pathirage recently won the javelin competition at the World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest, putting him in a strong position heading into the Asian Games. His emergence has added another name to a discipline that has been dominated by some of the continent's biggest athletics stars. Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem, the defending Olympic champion, is also expected to compete, although he finished fifth in Budapest. India's Neeraj Chopra, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion, will not be part of the Aichi-Nagoya field after missing the Games with an ankle injury. His absence removes one of the biggest names from the event, while Pathirage's recent form and Nadeem's pedigree set up an interesting contest for continental supremacy..Asian Games 2026 Live: Alex Eala puts Asian Games gold ahead of a major WTA event For some athletes, the attraction of the Asian Games goes beyond rankings and individual tournament schedules. Philippine tennis star Alex Eala is an example. The world No. 18 is expected to compete in Aichi-Nagoya after choosing to skip the WTA 1000 China Open, a mandatory tournament on the women's tennis calendar. Eala has spoken enthusiastically about representing the Philippines and described competing alongside her national team as a particularly enjoyable experience. Her attachment to multi-sport events was also evident when she reflected on last year's Southeast Asian Games, saying certain memories from that competition had stayed with her. The Asian Games are held only once every four years, making them a rare opportunity to compete for a continental title as part of a national delegation. Eala already has two bronze medals from Hangzhou and will now chase a step higher on the podium, even though skipping a mandatory WTA event could carry ranking and financial consequences..Asian Games 2026 Live: Badminton brings Olympic champions into the spotlight Badminton is one of the sports that can give the Asian Games an atmosphere closer to a major global championship, particularly because some of Asia's biggest stars compete for continental honours. South Korea's An Se-young is one of the leading names in the field. The women's singles Olympic champion from Paris is also the world's top-ranked player and arrives with an imposing recent record. She won the women's singles gold medal at the Hangzhou Asian Games three years ago and also contributed to South Korea's team gold. Her form remains strong after another China Masters title, her third in succession, and a world title earlier this year. Yet An has suggested that the Asian Games carry a different kind of significance. She told South Korean news agency Yonhap that the event could feel similar to other international tournaments, but reaching the top of the podium would mean hearing her country's national anthem — a distinction that gives the Games an added emotional dimension..Asian Games 2026 Live: China dominates — and swimming could produce more fireworks If there is one sporting power that has traditionally defined the Asian Games, it is China. At the Hangzhou Games, China won a staggering 201 gold medals, compared with 52 for Japan and 42 for South Korea, underlining the scale of its dominance. That pattern is expected to continue in Aichi-Nagoya, with swimming among the sports likely to attract major attention during the opening days. China is expected to field several Olympic champions, including Pan Zhanle, Wang Shun, Qin Haiyang and Xu Jiayu. Pan holds the world record in the men's 100m freestyle, while Qin has the global mark in the 200m breaststroke. There is also considerable curiosity around China's teenage swimming sensation Yu Zidi. At just 12, she finished fourth in three events at the 2025 World Championships in Singapore. Now 13, she will be among the young athletes attracting attention as the Asian Games swimming programme gets underway..Asian Games 2026 Live: From New Delhi 1951 to Aichi-Nagoya 2026 The Asian Games have come a long way since the inaugural edition was held in New Delhi in 1951. Aichi-Nagoya 2026 will mark the 20th edition of the continental multi-sport event, which has grown dramatically in both participation and sporting scope over the decades. The previous edition was held in Hangzhou, China, in 2023 after being postponed by a year because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Around 12,000 athletes took part in those Games, underlining how the Asian Games have developed into one of the world's biggest multi-sport events. The 2026 edition will again bring together athletes from across the continent, with 45 countries and regions represented. While the Olympics remain the bigger global sporting spectacle in terms of reach and profile, the Asian Games provide a much broader competitive platform for athletes from nations that rarely feature prominently at the Olympics..Asian Games 2026 Live: Bigger than the Summer Olympics in numbers The sheer scale of the Asian Games can be difficult to grasp until it is put alongside the Olympics. The 2024 Paris Summer Olympics featured around 10,700 athletes, while the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games are set to welcome more than 11,000 athletes when the event opens in Japan on Saturday. That figure could rise further, with organisers acknowledging a late surge in the number of athletes and officials travelling to the Games. The increase has already created pressure on accommodation and logistics. The Asian Games, therefore, are not simply a continental version of the Olympics in terms of sporting prestige; in terms of numbers, venues, accommodation, transport and daily operations, they represent an enormous undertaking. With delegations arriving from across Asia, the scale becomes even more apparent..Asian Games 2026 Live: India's campaign begins today Hello and welcome to the live coverage of the Asian Games 2026 from Aichi-Nagoya, Japan. India’s campaign gets underway two days before the official opening ceremony, with teqball marking the country’s first action at the continental Games today. Indian men’s doubles pair Declan Marshall Gonsalves and Mohamed Anas Imran Beg will be the first Indian athletes to take the field, as they begin their campaign in the historic Asian Games debut of teqball.