1958 жылғы Токио Азия ойындары

Multi sport event in Tokyo, Japan

The 1958 Asian Games, officially the Third Asian Games (第3回アジア競技大会) and commonly known as Tokyo 1958, was a multi sport event held in Tokyo, Japan, from 24 May to 1 June 1958. It was governed by the Asian Games Federation. A total of 1,820 athletes representing 20 Asian National Olympic Committees (NOCs) participated in the Games. The program featured competitions in 13 different sports encompassing 97 events, including four non Olympic sports, judo, table tennis, tennis and volleyball. Four of these competition sports – field hockey, table tennis, tennis and volleyball – were introduced for the first time in the Asian Games. This is the first time that Japan hosted the Asian Games.

The Asian Games is a multi sport event, much like the Summer Olympics (albeit on a much smaller scale), with participation exclusively for Asian countries. The first edition was held in the capital city of India, New Delhi, in 1951, attracting 489 competitors from 11 nations.

The programme for the Tokyo 1958 Games included 13 different sports divided into 97 events. Four of these sports – judo, table tennis, tennis and volleyball – were not on the official Olympic sports programme at that time. Badminton was added as a demonstration sport, which, from 1962 onwards, became a regular competitive sport in the Asian Games. Judo was another demonstration sport.

The tradition of torch relay, inspired by the Olympic Games, was introduced for the first time in the Asian Games in 1958. The relay officially began from the main venue of the Second Asian Games, Rizal Memorial Coliseum, in Manila, Philippines. In the host nation, Japan, it was relayed from Okinawa to Kyushu Island. Okinawa was under the United States administration at that time. At the opening ceremony, the Games cauldron was ignited by the first Japanese Olympic gold medallist and the first Asian Olympic champion in an individual event, Mikio Oda.

The opening ceremony of the Tokyo 1958 Games was organised on 24 May 1958 at the National Olympic Stadium. The ceremony, among other dignitaries and guests, included the Emperor of Japan Hirohito, crown prince Akihito and Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Around 70,000 people attended the opening ceremony.

Athletes from 16 countries won medals, leaving four countries without a medal, and 11 of them won at least one gold medal. Afghanistan, Cambodia, Nepal and North Borneo did not win any medal. The Japanese 4 × 100 metres medley relay team of Keiji Hase (backstroke), Masaru Furukawa (breaststroke), Manabu Koga (freestyle) and Takashi Ishimoto (butterfly) won the gold medal with a time of 4:17.2 and broke the world record. The ranking in this table is consistent with International Olympic Committee convention in its published medal tables. By default, the table is ordered by the number of gold medals the athletes from a nation have won (in this context, a nation is an entity represented by a NOC). The number of silver medals is taken into consideration next, followed by the number of bronze medals. If nations are still tied, equal ranking is given; they are listed alphabetically by IOC country code. The top ten ranked NOCs at these Games are listed below. The host nation, Japan, is highlighted.