Tajinderpal Singh Toor’s ceremonial kit was stuck at Nagoya airport, and a kabaddi raider carried India’s flag instead
A ceremonial kit that never made it out of India cost Tajinderpal Singh Toor his place at the head of the contingent in Aichi-Nagoya, and handed the flag to Pawan Sehrawat.
Sep 19, 2026
Tajinderpal Singh Toor was supposed to carry India’s flag into the Paloma Mizuho Stadium on Saturday evening. His ceremonial kit was still in India.
“I am told that my kit will reach at 3pm at the (Nagoya) airport,” the shot putter said. “Reaching the opening ceremony venue after collecting my kit from airport on time will be very difficult. So, I have told IOA that I am not coming for opening ceremony.” The ceremony started at 6pm local time, 2.30pm IST.
So the job went to Pawan Sehrawat, who walked out alongside Manu Bhaker at the head of an Indian contingent of roughly 500 athletes entered across 36 sports.
The raider who was already awake
Sehrawat was told late and did not go back to sleep. “I have been awake for many hours now, but I still have so much energy because of this opportunity, to carry my nation’s flag in my hand,” he said. He passed the news to his elder brother that night and left the rest of the family to find out in the morning.
He is 30. He won the Arjuna Award in 2023, and he captained the side that took the kabaddi gold back for India at Hangzhou in 2022. His own memory of these Games runs further back than that. “My memories of the Asian Games go back to 2014, during the final match against Iran,” he said. “In the final raid, Manjeet Chhillar bhai made the tackle.” Then, on what happens next: “I saw that dream in 2014, fulfilled it in 2022, and now we will do it again in 2026.”
India have won the men’s kabaddi gold in eight of the nine editions since 1990. The exception was a bronze in 2018.
A week the contingent will want to forget
The missing kit was not an isolated problem. India’s shooting team landed in Nagoya and did not finish checking in until some time between 5am and 5.30am, more than eight hours after arriving, because the accommodation waiting on the ground did not match what the Indian Olympic Association had been given. Across several sports the shortfall left 30 to 35 athletes without rooms. Athletes moved their own luggage, and their own shooting equipment, between two properties a few hundred metres apart, the men making repeat trips to help the women in the squad.
Rahi Sarnobat arrived later and found that the room booked for her at the Grand Tiara Hotel was being used for dope control.
Sports minister Mansukh Mandaviya stepped in on Friday. The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has since put a three-layer management system in place in Nagoya, stationed officials at the airport and the welcome centre, arranged extra buses so the contingent leans less on the Games transport system, and has around 2,000 members of the Indian diaspora on standby to house athletes if it comes to that.
Toor, the defending shot put champion and a winner at the last two Asian Games, will get his kit. He just did not get the ceremony.