With many medals at world level coming out of the Asia region, the competition for podium places will be high in all three of the Climbing disciplines when the action starts at the Port Messe Nagoya International Exhibition Centre. 

Speaking at the Technical Meeting for the Team Leaders World Climbing Vice President Kobinata Toru said: “I’ve been lucky enough to see a lot of sports here at the Asian Games already, and I think we have one of the best venues. We are very lucky to have this amazing venue, and I want to also thank all of the people who have helped organise this event.”

The Asian Games is a multisport event valued very highly in the region and has similarities to the Olympic Games with quotas of two for each competing country. So stiff is the competition for places that some strong climbers like the legendary Jain Kim and the current men’s Speed world record holder Yicheng Zhao actually miss out on attending.

However, among the 94 athletes from the 13 nations taking part in the Climbing competition, you still have Olympic medallists, world champions and World Climbing Series medallists.

Team Japan will look to defend the titles they won in Hangzhou 2022 last time around with Ai Mori and Sorato Anraku hoping to please the home crowd with consecutive Asian Games golds. The duo both won a Boulder & Lead combined format last time, but this time the disciplines are separate. Mori will go for both, Anraku just for Boulder.

In the third appearance for Climbing at the Asian Games, you have former medallists in the start lists such as South Korea’s Jongwon Chon, China’s Lijuan Deng and Indonesia’s Veddriq Leonardo.

Boulder has South Korea’s Dohyun Lee and China’s Yufei Pan who are both World Cup winners and Thailand’s Auswin Aueareechit who has world medals at youth level in the men’s with Miho Nonaka joining Mori in the women’s which also features South Korea’s Chaehyun Seo and China’s Yuetong Zhang. 

In Lead you have Lee and Seo doubling up on disciplines competing against Indonesia’s Putra Tri Ramadani who won his first World Climbing Series gold this year and is in fine form, and Iran’s Sarina Ghaffari who qualified through her World Championship result, among other climbers.

When it comes to Speed, there’s the biggest difference in experience on the world stage. Of course, you have Olympic champion Veddriq Leonardo and former world champion and Asian Games champion Desak Made Rita Kusuma Dewi from Indonesia and Olympic medallist Lijuan Deng from China. You also have Japan’s Ryo Omasa who is fresh of his first World Climbing Series gold from Chongqing just over a week ago. But you also have the climbers from Jordan who are competing in their first world level event.

One of those climbers is Jood Farkouh and she is trying to take everything in, even the Athletes village: “It’s so surreal. I’m trying to live in the moment, but it’s very hard. You think to yourself I’m on a cruise ship, ok, I’m surrounded by world champions, ok, it’s such an insane opportunity and I am so grateful to be here.”

Talking about her goals for the event Farkouh said: “I’m definitely one of the most inexperienced climbers here and I’m taking this as a learning opportunity and the competition here is against myself. The amount of training I’ve done in Speed climbing is relatively short, so I’m not going for podium or anything like that, I’m going for a personal record and be proud of what I do. I want to hit the holds right and do the best I can.”

On the opposite end of the scale from Farkouh is Iran’s Reza Alipour Shenazandifard who is the only climber to win gold in the men’s Speed discipline at an Asian Games.

“I’m so happy because I have two gold medals at the Asian Games and I want to go for three, as maybe the next Asian Games I will not be competing because I’m getting older now. I’m 32, I’ve been competing a long time, and I am thankful for everything that has happened.”

Shenazandifard is the two-time winner and is a former world record holder, but as he admits himself, coming toward the end of his career, the Asian Games holds a special place in his heart, but the competition is very tough.

Climbing begins in Nagoya with the men’s Boulder competition followed by women’s Speed on the first day for the sport in the Games.

For more information on Climbing at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games 2026 visit: https://www.aichi-nagoya2026.org/sport/sport-climbing/