The New Indian Express ·
Days before the Asian Games, visa concerns for late entrants
CHENNAI: The 2026 Asian Games will officially begin in Nagoya, Japan on September 19. With only a few days remaining in the Opening Ceremony, more than half-a-dozen track and field athletes from India, a few coaches and officials from National Sports Federations (NSFs) have yet not received visas to travel to Japan and be part of the quadrennial event.
The delay hit the track and field athletes hard as they are supposed to join their compatriots as soon as possible for a preparatory camp at University of Tsukuba apart from getting acclimated to local weather and time zone. These athletes are late additions to the Asian Games list, which eventually led to delay in preparations of their accreditation cards. The list of athletes affected by visa hurdle includes high jumper Supriya B, pole vaulter Sindhushree G, hammer thrower Praveen Kumar, 200m sprinter Harita Bhadra, quarter-miler Kiran Pahal, heptathlete Anamika KA and triple jumper Asha Ilango.
Besides, a track and field coach is also facing the visa issue at the moment. There is also a foreign coach from another discipline — wrestling — who is facing the issue. The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) named three foreign coaches in its contingent — Georgia’s Emzarios Shako Bentinidis (men’s freestyle coach), Japan’s Kosei Akaishi (women wrestling) and Gogi Koguashvili (men’s Greco-Roman). While the Japanese coach doesn't need a visa, Shako holds a passport from a European country and is unlikely to face the issue. Koguashvili, a former Russian wrestler of Georgian descent, may be hit by visa trouble.
