Thailand Send Six Hundred and Ninety-Four Athletes to Aichi and Malaysia Three Hundred and Forty-Seven
The Games open on 19 September with 469 medal events, 43 sports and six additions to the programme.
The 20th Asian Games open in Aichi Prefecture and Nagoya on 19 September and close on 4 October. It is Japan's third time as host, after Tokyo in 1958 and Hiroshima in 1994.
The programme is 469 medal events across 43 sports. Six are new to the Games: freestyle BMX, mixed martial arts, padel, surfing, teqball and virtual taekwondo.
Forty-six delegations are entered, the 45 National Olympic Committees of the Olympic Council of Asia plus an Asian Refugee Team.
Of the three markets we follow, Thailand is much the largest with 694 athletes entered. Malaysia has 347 and Singapore 304. Entry numbers usually move in both directions in the last fortnight, so treat them as a guide.
The torch was lit on 18 August with ceremonies in Tokyo and Hiroshima, marking the two earlier Japanese hosts. The main relay began on 22 August at Nagoya Castle with roughly 1,000 torchbearers covering all 40 municipalities of Aichi and all 16 wards of Nagoya.
Esports runs separately from 23 September to 2 October at the Aichi International Exhibition Center in Tokoname, with 11 medal events.
The sixteen days overlap almost exactly with the merged September and October international break in Europe, so there is very little club football to compete with.