Athletes from Central Asia’s five countries won 186 medals at the Asian Games in Japan, where Uzbekistan finished fifth overall and Kazakhstan claimed the region’s largest medal haul.
The 20th Summer Asian Games were held from September 19 to October 4 in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan. China once again topped the medal table, followed by Japan and South Korea.
Uzbekistan won 70 medals, including 21 golds, matching its fifth-place finish at the previous Games in Hangzhou. The result follows a 13th-place finish in the medal table at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Kazakhstan won 84 medals, including 12 golds, and finished eighth in the standings, up from 11th at the previous Asian Games.
Among Kazakhstan’s champions was road cyclist Alexey Lutsenko, whose two victories took his Asian Games career tally to six golds, making him the country’s most successful athlete in the competition by number of gold medals.
Boxers Torekhan Sabyrkhan and Aibek Oralbay also won gold. Kazakhstan’s men’s épée fencing team claimed another title, while Vladislav Yakovlev and Ivan Chernukhin took gold in the men’s pair rowing event.
Kazakhstan’s Yasmina Toxanbayeva crossed the line first in the women’s marathon race walk, a 26.2-mile event, but was disqualified because her shoes did not comply with World Athletics requirements. The Kazakhstan Athletics Federation challenged the decision.
Tajikistan won 16 medals and finished 22nd, surpassing its previous record of seven medals at a single Asian Games. Before the Japan Games, the country had won 35 medals in total across all previous Summer Asian Games appearances.
Kyrgyzstan finished 26th with 14 medals, including one gold and three silvers. The country also won 10 bronzes, and all but one of its medals came in combat sports.
Turkmenistan’s two silver medals went to karate athlete Davut Nazmyradov and weightlifter Shahzadbek Matyakubov. Matyakubov finished second in the men’s 110-kilogram category behind Uzbekistan’s Akbar Djuraev.
The next Summer Asian Games will be held in Doha in 2030.
