Former athletes light Asian Games flame

With less than a month to go until the opening ceremony, the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games Organising Committee held a ceremony at Nagoya Castle on Saturday, where flames from Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagoya were united to create the official flame for the 2026 Asian Games torch relay.

Former Ballon d'Or winner Homare Sawa, former world number four Kimiko Date and three-time Olympic wrestling champion Saori Yoshida took part in the ceremony and jointly created the Games flame. Yoshida later lit the torch as the relay's first torchbearer.

"Today marks the beginning of the Asian Games' great journey," said Aichi Governor and AINAGOC President Hideaki Ohmura, expressing hope that the event will leave a lasting mark on history and in the hearts of people across Asia.

The torch relay will travel across Aichi Prefecture ahead of the opening ceremony on September 19, with around 1,000 torchbearers expected to participate.