Asian Games 2026: Day-wise schedule for India’s 508-athlete contingent
Team India will begin competition at the Asian Games 2026, which are scheduled to start on September 19 in Aichi Prefecture and Nagoya, Japan. The Indian contingent comprises 508 athletes who will compete across 36 sports, and an updated day-wise schedule for their events has been published.
The Asian Games 2026 feature 41 sports, 71 disciplines and 469 medal events with more than 11,000 athletes across Asia entered. Mirabai Chanu, who won three gold medals in women’s weightlifting at the 2026 Commonwealth Games, is listed among India’s strongest contenders, while archers are led by Dhiraj Bommadevara after his men’s individual recurve title at the Archery World Cup Final. Multiple shooters mentioned in the schedule include Esha Singh, Aishwary Pratap Singh and Rudrankksh Patil, and Manu Bhaker is noted for having won two medals at the Paris Olympics. The preview also records that India failed to win a gold in wrestling at the last Games, finishing with one silver and five bronze, and that Neeraj Chopra was withdrawn because of injury; reports cited strict qualification criteria from the sports ministry as a reason for a smaller contingent compared with 2022.
Opening-day highlights for India include Cricket – Women’s T20 – India vs Japan – quarterfinal – 10:30 AM; Soft Tennis – Men’s team – preliminary round – starting from 5:30 AM; Teqball – Women’s singles – Preliminary round – 6:30 AM and Mixed doubles – Preliminary round – 9:00 AM; Badminton – Women’s team – preliminary round – starting from 6:00 AM; Hockey – Men’s Pool A – India vs Indonesia – 11:30 AM and Hockey – Women’s Pool B – India vs Uzbekistan – 7:30 AM.
Shooting and pool sports scheduled early in the day include Shooting – Women’s 10m air rifle individual and team – qualification – 6:15 AM with the Women’s 10m air rifle individual final at 11:00 AM; Shooting – Men’s 10m air rifle individual and team – qualification – 6:15 AM with the Men’s 10m air rifle individual final at 9:00 AM; Men’s skeet and Women’s skeet – qualification – 6:30 AM. Swimming entries list Men’s 100m freestyle, Men’s 100m backstroke and several other heats starting 6:30 AM, while Table Tennis shows Men’s and Women’s team group-stage matches from 6:30 AM; Wushu includes Men’s changquan final at 5:30 AM and multiple sanda preliminary rounds later in the day.
Weightlifting entries name Mirabai Chanu in Women’s 49kg – starting from 6:30 AM, Gyaneshwari Yadav in Women’s 53kg – starting from 6:30 AM, and Seram Nirupama Devi in Women’s 61kg – 6:30 AM. Archery preliminaries are scheduled across early sessions, with Recurve men’s individual, Compound women’s individual, Recurve men’s team, Compound women’s team and mixed-team preliminaries starting from 4:30 AM and other recurve and compound preliminaries listed at later times.
Team sports and combat schedules include Kabaddi – Men’s Group A – India vs Japan – 9:45 AM and Kabaddi – Women’s Group A – India vs Bangladesh – 4:15 PM; Hockey fixtures also show India facing Sri Lanka and South Korea on later days at 3:30 PM and 11:30 AM respectively. Rowing lists Men’s single sculls, double sculls and pair heats starting from 5:30 AM, 5:50 AM and 6:40 AM with finals on subsequent days (subject to qualification).
Athletics entries on the schedule include the Men’s javelin throw – qualification round – starting from 7:35 AM, Men’s 100m – round 1 – 4:38 PM, Women’s 10,000m – final – 5:55 PM and the Mixed 4x400m relay – final – 6:55 PM. The schedule also lists heptathlon events, triple jump and high jump qualification and final sessions across the athletics programme.
India’s program opens with the confirmed fixture Cricket – Women’s T20 – India vs Japan – quarterfinal – 10:30 AM; the full updated day-wise schedule for India’s athletes is available in the published itinerary accompanying this preview.