Asia’s best track and field athletes compete over seven days at the 20th Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya 2026 this month, with the reigning Olympic and World Athletics Ultimate champion Kitaguchi Haruka headlining hosts Japan’s team.
Other continental stars, such as Puripol Boonson, Shanti Pereira, Aberrahman Samba, Avinash Sable, EJ Obiena, Winfred Yavi and others will also be in action at the Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium in Nagoya, Japan, from 23–29 September.
Kitaguchi, the reigning women’s javelin Olympic champion, is remarkably competing at her first Asiad. With the backing of her home crowd, she will hope to make up for a disappointing performance at the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo.
Pereira, Samba, Sable, Obiena, and Yavi are all defending champions in their events – the women’s 200m, men’s 400m hurdles, men’s steeplechase, men’s pole vault, and women’s steeplechase respectively – and have targeted the Asian Games this season.
Samba even skipped last weekend’s World Athletics Ultimate Championships in Budapest for this reason.
Diamond League and Commonwealth Games men’s javelin champion Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage will also be a favourite in that event.
Discover when each of them competes with the full athletics schedule below.
read more: https://www.olympics.com/en/news/20th-asian-games-aichi-nagoya-2026-athletics-when-stars-compete
