Hendra Wijaya
The Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, have been plagued by a series of organisational and logistical failures that have left athletes frustrated, exhausted, and openly critical of the host nation, with rain-delayed events on Monday adding yet another layer of disruption to a tournament already struggling to maintain its credibility.
What began with a glitzy opening ceremony on September 19 has since been overshadowed by an accommodation crisis, transportation blunders, and scheduling chaos that have come to define the Games. Athletes from multiple countries have reported being transported to wrong venues, forced to change on buses, and left without access to food at their hotels, painting a picture of an event struggling to meet the basic expectations of international competition.
India's multiple-Olympic medallist PV Sindhu was among the most prominent voices to express frustration, lamenting a badminton schedule that required her to play three matches within an 18-hour window. Writing on social media after her quarterfinal exit on Sunday, Sindhu described the toll the gruelling schedule had taken on her performance, noting that she returned to her accommodation at 3am only to be back on court at 8:30am. The compressed timeline left little room for recovery, a critical component for athletes competing at the highest level.
Pakistan's volleyball team experienced a different but equally damaging logistical failure when they were mistakenly taken to the wrong gymnasium just one hour before their preliminary round match. The error forced players to change into their kits on the bus and left them without adequate time for a warm-up, a situation that could have compromised their performance and increased the risk of injury. Despite the disruption, the team managed to defeat Uzbekistan 3-0, but the incident underscored deeper problems with event coordination.
Men's captain Murad Jehan did not mince words about the state of the Games. In a now-deleted video posted to his Instagram account as the team travelled to their match, he stated that Japan had "destroyed the dignity and discipline of the Asian Games." He described a "really disappointing situation" in which athletes would often return from training sessions to find their hotel restaurant closed, leaving them unable to eat. "This situation at Asian Games is not acceptable," he added, reflecting a growing sentiment among competitors that the host nation has failed in its duty of care.
The South Korean men's basketball team encountered similar transportation woes when their shuttle bus failed to arrive on time, causing them to miss a light practice session just hours before their final. Team officials said they received no explanation for the delay. The incident echoed an earlier failure experienced by the men's football team, whose bus also did not show up at their hotel. A day before that, a bus had taken athletes to a baseball ground instead of the Mizuho Rugby Stadium, resulting in a 30-minute delay that further eroded confidence in the organisers' ability to manage logistics.
On Monday, persistent rain became the latest challenge, disrupting tennis, surfing, and cricket competitions across the region. Both men's cricket quarterfinals—Pakistan versus Hong Kong and India versus Afghanistan—were washed out after the playing field at Korogi Athletic Park on the outskirts of Nagoya was drenched. With no contingency built into the schedule for rained-off matches, Pakistan and India advanced to the semifinals of the T20 tournament by virtue of their higher rankings, a rule that left Afghanistan bitterly disappointed.
For Afghanistan, the outcome was especially painful. Three years ago at the Hangzhou Games, their final was abandoned due to rain, and the gold medal went to India under the same rankings rule. Opener Mohammed Akram expressed the team's frustration, saying, "The rain started yesterday, so hard luck for us. We would have been happy to play here with India. Our players are in form. But unfortunately the rain has ruined everything." The sentiment captured the helplessness felt by athletes whose years of preparation can be undone by factors entirely beyond their control.
Typhoon Surigae added to the meteorological misery on Monday, lashing southern Japan's Okinawa prefecture and projected to track northeast towards central Japan and the Tokyo region by midweek. The prospect of strong winds and heavy rain threatened further disruption to the already beleaguered Games. Earlier in the tournament, Typhoon Dujuan had forced the suspension of equestrian events in Tokyo, though most competitions at the time were unaffected. The compounding weather events have raised questions about whether the Games' scheduling sufficiently accounted for Japan's autumn typhoon season.
The rain also affected tennis, with several matches scrapped on Sunday and delays continuing into Monday. Fans hoping to watch Filipino headliner Alex Eala's opening match against Thai opponent Patcharin Cheapchandej faced repeated frustration at the Higashiyama Park Tennis Centre. Eala, the women's top seed, had her match shifted off centre court amid the scheduling logjam, though she ultimately prevailed 6-1, 6-0 in just 55 minutes. The disruption highlighted how weather-related scheduling changes can affect not only athletes but also the spectator experience.
Surfing competitions were called off early at the Long Beach venue southeast of Nagoya due to poor wave conditions, with medal finals already pushed to Tuesday. India's Kishore Kumar Anbarasu managed to complete his heat before it was abandoned, defeating China's Ma Wensong to advance to the quarterfinals on the sport's Asian Games debut. "It was not the easiest conditions. It was very hard to find the good waves," Anbarasu said, describing the challenging environment that athletes faced in addition to the organisational issues.
Organisers finally issued an apology on Saturday for the logistical glitches that had left thousands of athletes in cramped housing conditions with undersized beds, forcing several countries to house their athletes elsewhere. Satoshi Murate, secretary-general of the local organising committee, acknowledged the problems caused by a late influx of approximately 2,000 additional athletes and officials, though the apology did little to quell the growing frustration among competing nations.
The accommodation crisis, which first emerged in the days before the opening ceremony, saw athletes from multiple countries relocated to alternative facilities due to insufficient capacity and inadequate room sizes. For elite athletes, proper rest and recovery are non-negotiable components of performance, and the housing shortfalls represented a direct threat to their ability to compete at their best. The fact that countries felt compelled to arrange independent accommodation underscored the severity of the planning failures.
The cumulative effect of these incidents has been a Games that many athletes have described as "sad," a stark contrast to the celebratory atmosphere that typically defines such continental showcases. The Asian Games represent the second-largest multi-sport event in the world after the Olympics, and the organisational shortcomings have raised questions about Japan's readiness to host major international competitions. With the tournament still ongoing, athletes and officials alike will be watching closely to see whether organisers can rectify the problems or whether the Games will continue to be defined by their failures rather than the sporting achievements within them.
The rain, transportation errors, and accommodation issues have combined to create a perfect storm of dysfunction that has overshadowed the athletic performances themselves. For the athletes who have trained for years to compete on this stage, the experience has been one of frustration and disappointment rather than the celebration of sport they had anticipated. As the Games continue, the pressure remains on organisers to restore order and ensure that the remaining competitions can proceed without further incident.
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