The Indian delegation arrived for the flag-hoisting ceremony for the Asian Games at the garden pier near Nagoya port in Japan on September 18, 2026.
| Photo Credit: R.V. Moorthy
The Asian Games chaos in Aichi-Nagoya continued ahead of the formal opening ceremony on Saturday (September 19, 2026), with the official welcome ceremony for several nations, including India, marred by disruptions, delays and confusion.
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The Indian contingent, along with those from North Korea, Yemen, Palestine, Timor-Leste and Taiwan, was supposed to have its flag-hoisting ceremony at the Garden Pier — where the container accommodation is — at 1:30 p.m. local time in the second session of the day, but the disorganised planning meant it didn’t happen before 2:30 p.m. and after a series of stops, starts and going backwards and forwards.
The delegations arrived on time and were assembled near the flag-hoisting area for at least half an hour. India’s representatives — chef-de-mission Sahdev Yadav and deputy CDMs Anjali Bhagwat, Alakananda Ashok, Lijo David Thottan and A. Sharath Kamal — kept waiting and were about to walk on to the raising area before being asked to return to the waiting area for further communication.
There was no clarity, and no one had any information on the reasons behind the delay. “There is some problem, but we don’t know what it is. We are also trying to find out,” the volunteers and officials at the venue said.
“The communication between the Olympic Council of Asia Executive Board and Organising Committee was not well… that’s why this happened,” a statement from the organisers later clarified.
Sahdev admitted he was also experiencing something like this for the first time. At Aichi-Nagoya, however, it was just another in the already long list of issues plaguing the edition.
Published – September 18, 2026 06:41 pm IST
