Lankan athletes seek to raise the bar at 20th Asian Games
Updated Date: 16th September, 2026
By Srian Obeyesekere
Sri Lanka's athletes to the upcoming 20th Asian Games at Aichi-Nagoya, Japan commencing on September 19 will carry a high expectancy of striving to improve on the country's previous performances.
What has fired the imagination of Lankans is the recent epic Commonwealth Gold Medal winning performance by Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage who made history by becoming the country's first athlete to win a gold at that level. He won in the men's javelin throw last July 31st beating a stacked athletics field to claim the title at the Scotstoun Stadium in Glasgow.
The former fast bowler Pathirage secured the win with a throw of 89.75m to finish ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion, Neeraj Chopra.
The 2026 Asian Games, officially the XX Asian Games also known as Aichi–Nagoya 2026, will be a multi-sport event which will be held from 19 September to 4 October 2026 around Aichi Prefecture in Japan.
It is significant that Nagoya will be the third Japanese city to host the Asian Games, after Tokyo in 1958 and Hiroshima in 1994. The event is set to return to its traditional four-year cycle, after the 2022 edition was postponed to 2023 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Games marked the 75th anniversary of the 1951 Asian Games held in New Delhi, India.
Over an estimated 11,000 athletes from 45 countries will participate in Asia's greatest athletic extravaganza namely Afghanistan,
Bahrain,
Bangladesh,
Bhutan,
Brunei, Darussalam
Cambodia
People’s Republic of China,
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,
Hong Kong, China,
India,
Indonesia,
Islamic Republic of Iran, Iraq, Japan, Jordan,
Kazakhstan,
Republic of Korea, Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan, Laos, People’s Democratic Republic of
Lebanon,
Macau, China
Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Oman
Pakistan, Palestine, Philippines
Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Syrian Arab Republic,
Chinese Taipei,
Tajikistan, Thailand,Timor-Leste,
Turkmenistan,
United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen.
For the record, Sri Lanka has participated in 19 Asian Games since 1951 to 2023.
An interesting tournament feature will be cricket making its fourth appearance at the Asian Games after featuring at Guangzhou 2010, Incheon 2014 and Hangzhou 2023.
Sri Lanka is yet to officially name its squad for the 10-a Side Men's Tournament as well as the women's squad for the tournament.
Ten teams will compete in the men’s cricket tournament while eight will feature in the women’s event. The women’s competition will be held from September 17 to 22, while the men’s tournament runs from September 24 to October 3 at the Korogi Athletic Park
in Aichi Prefecture.
India are the men's and women's defending champions having won gold at the 2023 Games.
