2026 Asian Games glory & Olympic qualification on Poligras
The 8th Asian Games to be played on our turfs.
The 2026 Asian Games (19 September to 4 October 2026) is a huge multisport event featuring 11,000 athletes from 45 countries. Stretching from Yemen to Japan, these countries represent over 50% of the world’s population.
The hockey tournaments will be played on Poligras Paris GT zero turfs at the Gifu Prefectural Green Stadium in Kakamigahara, Gifu Prefecture, Japan. Asia is one of world hockey’s strongest regions, guaranteeing competition of the highest standard. The Indian men and Chinese women enter the tournament as defending champions.
2028 Olympic Qualification
The event also serves as the Asian qualification event for the 2028 Summer Olympics.
The gold medalists secure direct entry to the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games. The next six highest-placed finishers in the men’s competition and the top four in the women’s event qualify for the FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifiers.
The winning teams from the Asian Games will become the third men’s and women’s teams to qualify for LA28. The USA men and women have qualified as hosts, while the Belgian men and Dutch women have already qualified as champions of the 2025/26 FIH Hockey Pro League.
The competition features 24 teams
Men’s Competition
Pool A: India, Japan (Host), Korea, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Indonesia
Pool B: Pakistan, Malaysia, China, Oman, Uzbekistan, Thailand
Women’s Competition
Pool A: China, Korea, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, Chinese Taipei, Bangladesh
Pool B: India, Japan (Host), Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Uzbekistan
Carbon zero hockey turf is a worldwide hockey hit
Poligras Paris GT zero hockey turf has been chosen for the 2026 Asian Games.
Developed for the Paris Olympic Games, it is the world’s first and only carbon zero hockey turf and has also been FIH Innovation-certified for dry hockey. The turf is made with 80% sugarcane, which replaces fossil fuel-based polyethylene in the manufacture of the turf fiber.
Poligras Paris GT zero also features a new proprietary friction-reducing technology called Turf Glide, which reduces friction and abrasion, meaning that, when dry, the Paris turf plays better than sand and that less water is required to lubricate the turf for elite hockey.
Hockey is a progressive sport, and with over 100 installations worldwide, the success of Poligras Paris demonstrates that the hockey community wants a more sustainable future for the sport.
We have a long history with the Asian Games
Men’s hockey has featured at the Asian Games since Tokyo 1958. The women’s competition was introduced at New Delhi 1982, which also marked the first use of hockey turf at the Games.
The turf in 1982 was provided by AstroTurf, six years after AstroTurf began hockey’s turf transformation at the 1976 Olympic Games.
2026 will be the 8th time that AstroTurf or Poligras have provided the turfs for the Asian Games.
1982: New Delhi, India
1986: Seoul, South Korea
1990: Beijing, China
1998: Bangkok, Thailand
2006: Doha, Qatar
2018: Jakarta, Indonesia
2022: Hangzhou, China
2026: Kakamigahara, Japan
This history with the event stretches back to the golden era of Pakistan men’s hockey, the rise of South Korea, which won the event three times (1994, 2002 and 2006), and, more recently, the return of Indian success.
The women’s competition began with an Indian victory and was followed by periods of dominance, initially from South Korea (1986, 1990, 1994 and 1998) and then from China, which has won four of the last six and is the defending champion.
Good luck to all teams
The Asian Games is a great opportunity for smaller hockey nations such as Sri Lanka, Kazakhstan and Thailand to compete against hockey giants such as China, India and Pakistan. We wish all the teams and players the best of luck as they add their chapter to the amazing legacy of hockey at the Asian Games.