Oct 4, 2026
Asian Games set to close
NAGOYA — The Asian Games in Japan will close later Sunday after a fortnight of record-smashing displays from young stars, but marred by mix-ups, patchy crowds and accusations of mismanagement.
More than 17,000 athletes and officials, a bigger number than the Olympics, descended on Nagoya and Aichi prefecture for the continent's premier sporting spectacular.
Chinese swimming sensation Yu Zidi, just 13, stole the show in the pool with three gold medals, all in Games-record times.
She looks set to be a major medal threat at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
The schoolgirl was named a Games MVP on Sunday to cap an extraordinary showing that saw her scorch to gold in the 200m butterfly and do the 200m-400m individual medley double.
But for that all that, the shy teenager said: "I don't think I am what people describe as a prodigy."
Also in the pool, Japanese swimmer Shin Ohashi, himself only 17, smashed the men's 200m breaststroke world record to delight the home crowd.
In athletics, where rain tumbled down over several days, Thai sprinter Puripol Boonson did the 100m-200m double and was named men's MVP.
"This time there were a lot of global athletes at this event, so the MVP gives me a lot of confidence that I can make the podium in LA," the 20-year-old said.
'Failure grade'
With the hours ticking down to the closing ceremony, when Japan will hand over the baton to Doha, top officials were on the defensive.
Olympic Council of Asia director general Husain Al-Musallam said "numbers are facts," pointing to 50 world records broken at the Games since they opened on September 19.
"The athletes cannot perform if they don't sleep good, the athletes cannot perform if they don't have good transportation," he said.
This 20th edition of the Games, which were first contested in 1951, did not have a traditional athletes' village in a bid to save money.
Instead, participants were housed in wooden temporary units, on a cruise ship and in hotels.
Organizers said this was a template for future multi-sports events.
But it came with issues, with some teams complaining the units were too cramped and the beds too short.
More than that, the ballooning numbers of athletes and officials meant there were not enough beds for everyone.
One Thai Olympic official told AFP it was "like musical chairs."
The sport, including a blockbuster cricket final won by India against arch-rivals Pakistan, did sometimes shine through.
North Korean weightlifter Ri Song Gum, a 140cm (4ft 7in) pocket powerhouse, set three new world marks in one day for gold.
But problems kept coming too, including organizers playing North Korea's national anthem for the South Korean hockey team.
There were athletes' buses that did not turn up when they should, or did not arrive at all.
Two teams were sent to the wrong venue, delaying a volleyball match.
"If I were to give them a grade, it would be an F," Ryu Seung-min, president of the Korean Sport and Olympic Committee, said.
Games organizers were on the back foot as well over attendances, with the opening ceremony taking place in front of thousands of empty seats.
At the women's football semi-final between hosts Japan and South Korea there were 998 spectators in a 50,000 stadium.
Boy history-maker
Japanese Olympic Committee president Seiko Hashimoto admitted that "there were many problems," but said the country wants to host more international events in future.
She said bad weather had turned some spectators off, but was eager to point out that some sports were well attended.
About 30,000 saw South Korea beat Japan 1-0 to clinch men's football gold, although the occasion was tarnished somewhat when the South Korean flag failed to go up in the victory ceremony.
The hosts finished with 83 golds, a distant second in the medals table behind China with 169.
Japan's tally included gold for Yuki Kurihara, who won an eSports competition aged 11, believed to make him the youngest Games champion in history.
Several sports with ambitions of making the Olympics made their debut, including padel, MMA and virtual taekwondo.
