Turkmen athletes began competing at the XX summer Asian Games, which opened in the Japanese city of Nagoya (the capital of Aichi Prefecture). Fans around the world, including Turkmenistan, which sent its national team to Japan, are following the progress of this largest sporting forum of the four-year period for two weeks.

The decision to hold the 2026 Asian Games here was made on the 25^th of September, 2016, at the General Assembly of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) in Da Nang, Vietnam. This is the third summer Games in the history of Japan– the competition was previously hosted by Tokyo in 1958 and Hiroshima in 1994.

The opening ceremony of the 2026 Asian Games was held at the «Paloma Mizuho» Stadium. The parade of athletes was traditionally opened by the Afghan delegation, followed by representatives of 45 participating countries and a refugee team, to a standing ovation from the stands. The Turkmenistan team entered under number 40. The flag of the country was carried by candidate for master of sports in wushu, Muhammet Jumamyradov. These are the ninth Asian Games in which Turkmen athletes have participated as an independent team, which became possible after the country gained independence.

The scale of the competition is impressive: by the 4^th of October, approximately 10,8 thousand athletes will compete for 469 sets of medals in 71 disciplines across 43 sports. The Turkmen delegation consists of 57 people, including 34 athletes and 15 coaches. Our team is represented in eight sports: boxing, wrestling (freestyle and Greco-Roman), karate, kurash, track and field, swimming, weightlifting, and wushu.

The first to enter the fight for medals were representatives of Wushu Sanda. In the 60 kg weight category, Merjen Jorayeva confidently advanced to the quarterfinals, defeating Rita Takulla from Nepal with a score of 2:0. A similar step will have to be taken by Hezret Ovezgeldiyev (up to 65 kg), who will face Iranian fighter Shoja Panahigelekhkolaei in the fight for a place in the quarterfinals. Earlier, in the 1/8 finals, Bibimeryem Akmuhammedova (up to 52 kg) finished her performance, losing to the representative of Kazakhstan Ayan Tursyn - 0:2, and Muhammet Jumamyradov (up to 75 kg), who lost to Zhang Huanyi from Chinese Taipei with the same score 0:2.

In the karate tournament, Rayan Gurbanmyradov (up to 60 kg) began his performance with a convincing victory in the 1/16 finals over Filipino John Christian Lachika – 6:1, but in the quarterfinals he lost to Hari Sankar Sureya Sankar from Malaysia. Another of our karatekas, Dayanch Keletliyev (up to 67 kg), dropped out of the competition in the 1/8 finals, losing to an athlete from Hong Kong.

In the pool, 15-year-old Alan Mukhin clocked 53.69 seconds in the 100-metre freestyle, finishing 34^th out of 43 participants. In the 50-metre freestyle, he won his heat with a time of 23.91 seconds, which secured him 29^th place out of 48 in the overall standings. Valeriya Mirenskaya completed the 200-metre individual medley in 2 minutes 43.30 seconds, finishing 21^st out of 23. David Akopyan took first place in his 100-metre breaststroke (1:04.72), finishing 26^th out of 36 in the final protocol.

The first Turkmen boxing master to perform at the boxing tournament was the bronze medalist of the previous Asian Games, Bayramdurdy Nurmuhammedov (up to 70 kg). In the preliminary round, he met Bahraini Ali Abdallah, who was given a split decision by the judges with a score of 4:1.

At the previous Asian Games, held from the 23^rd of September to 8^th of October, 2023 in Hangzhou, China, the delegation of Turkmenistan consisted of 104 people, including 67 athletes in 11 sports – 3x3 basketball, boxing, wrestling (freestyle and Greco-Roman), jiu-jitsu, judo, kurash wrestling, karate-do, athletics, swimming, weightlifting, and wushu. Then, Turkmen athletes brought home six bronze medals. They were won by: Maysa Pardayeva (judo, up to 57 kg), Aynur Amanova (kurash, up to 48 kg), Ishanmyrat Atayev (kurash, up to 90 kg), Bayramdurdy Nurmuhammedov (boxing, up to 71 kg), Dovletmyrad Orazgylyjov (freestyle wrestling, up to 86 kg) and Bayry Bayryyev (karate, up to 67 kg).