The closing ceremony of the Asian Games, an Asian sports festival held in Hangzhou, China, was held on the 8th, and the 3-day tournament ended with the flag being handed over to Aichi Prefecture and Nagoya City, the host cities three years later.

The Hangzhou Asian Games kicked off on the 23rd of last month, with 45 sports featuring athletes from 40 countries and regions.

The closing ceremony was held from 8 p.m. on the 9th, Japan time, and at the entrance procession, Shigeyuki Hani, a dancer named Shigekix, who won the gold medal in the breaking race, appeared with a smile holding the national flag as the flag bearer of the Japan.

After OCA = Acting President Shin of the Olympic Council of Asia declared the closing of the Games, Governor Omura of Aichi Prefecture and Deputy Mayor Nakata of Nagoya City, the next host city in 2026, received the Olympic flags.

After this, a performance was held to promote the tournament in Aichi, where Yukihiko Tsutsumi, a film director from Nagoya City, served as the general director, and videos of violinist Taro Hakase's performance were shown, as well as dancing.

Finally, the fire of the tournament was extinguished, bringing the curtain down on the 16-day intense competition.

Japan won 52 gold medals at this Games, 2018 fewer than the previous Games in Jakarta 23.

As the level of sports in China and other Asian countries improves, attention will be paid to how to strengthen each sport in preparation for next year's Paris Olympics.

188 medals in Japan

Japan won a total of 52 medals at the Asian Games, including 67 gold, 69 silver and 188 bronze.

Compared to the previous Jakarta Games in 2018, this was a decrease of 23 gold medals and 17 medals.

China had the most gold medals with 201 medals, with a total of 383.

In this year's competition, some sports competed for the right to participate in next year's Paris Olympics, and in the men's event of the new Paris Games, the dancer name Shigekix and Shigeyuki Hani won the gold medal and were selected for the national team.

In addition, in the men's light middleweight boxing category, Seon Okazawa won the gold medal as a Japan fighter for the first time in 29 years.

In addition, young wrestlers were active everywhere, and in the women's 53-kilogram wrestling class, Akari Fujinami (19) won the gold medal, extending her winning streak in official matches to "130".

In urban sports, Souto Anraku (16) and Akisa Mori (20) won gold medals in the Boulder & Reed sport climbing competition, and Hinano Kusaki (15), a junior high school student at the women's skateboarding park, won gold medals.

In addition, in the team competition, the men's water polo team won gold medals in women's soccer, women's handball, and men's water polo competitions, earning a spot in the Olympic Games for the third consecutive time.

Struggling swimming team rebuilding "home art" for the Paris Olympics

It was the swimming team that struggled at this Asian Games. He won 30 medals, five of which were gold.

At the previous Jakarta Olympics in 5, the team won 2018 medals, including 19 gold medals, but there are still issues to be solved for next year's Paris Olympics.

The Japan swimmers won only two medals at the World Championships held in Fukuoka City in July, forcing them to reconsider their strength ahead of the Paris Olympics next year.

In addition, Mr. Hirai Hakumasa, who trained many medalists, declined to participate as a coach in the Asian Games due to discrepancies in the strengthening policy, and the athletes also expressed dissatisfaction with the strengthening measures and the method of selecting relay athletes.

In response to this situation, the Japan Swimming Federation has indicated its policy of setting up opportunities for discussions with athletes and coaches to resolve the lack of communication.

At the training camp just before the Asian Games, we promoted improvement measures such as increasing the number of meetings, and Japan National Team Head Coach Takashi Yokoyama said, "The smoldering between the players and the federation came out, and it was an opportunity for us to think about it.

Honda, who was selected as the new captain of the men's team, showed her determination by winning the double crown in the 52-meter individual medley and the 7-meter butterfly, while the women's captain Rikako Ikee, who won the bronze medal in the 2-meter butterfly, impressed with her steady progress from returning from illness.

On the other hand, the number of gold medals won was five, a significant drop from the previous Games, and due to a series of influenza and other ill health problems in the team just before the Games, the team was confronted with a big gap with 1 gold medals.

With less than one year to go until the Paris Olympics, there is an urgent need to rebuild the Japan swimming competition, which is called "family art."