From Kumkum Mohod’s Korean media scrum to a North Korean pin and Nagoya’s manholes — A reporter’s diary from the Asian Games

Making waves: South Korean media arrived expecting one of its archers to dominate the headlines. Instead, 17-year-old Kumkum Mohod left them scrambling for words after stunning two Korean archers to win India a historic gold. | Photo Credit: Jonathan Selvaraj

I confess I’ve googled my name in the past to see what namesakes I might have. There are not too many Jonathan Selvarajs out there, although I once discovered an inmate in the USA State Department of Corrections, the nature of whose crime needed him to stay far away from schools. However, while covering the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, I chanced upon a strong claimant to the title of the best Jonathan Selvaraj in the world.

A 23-year-old golfer, Jonathan Selvaraj was representing the UAE at these Games. When I posted his profile on social media, I was hit with accusations of being another of the Gulf countries’ imported talents and of committing age fraud. I was also pressed to make an attempt to interview Jonathan Selvaraj. I admit the thought crossed my mind. In the worst case, I could have interviewed myself and carried the quotes as spoken by Jonathan Selvaraj.

Hard enough to be a journalist at these Games when you are also competing in it. This has got to be a first for me. My namesake is really struggling though https://t.co/HMbeRmHYqg

— jonathan selvaraj (@jon_selvaraj) September 30, 2026

Ultimately, I didn’t go. There were too many events going on to spend time travelling to a venue simply to satisfy my curiosity. For what it’s worth, Jonathan Selvaraj eventually failed to make the cut in his event. I’m sure, though, he will have more chances in the future and continue to make Jonathan Selvarajs worldwide proud.

Of pimple patches

On the last day of the Asian Games, India had multiple potential gold medals. It was still a surprise to see that most members of the Indian contingent and nearly all the electronic media had prioritised the cricket final between India and Pakistan. There were three Indian journalists to watch 17-year-old Kumkum Mohod take out two Korean archers to win a historic gold medal for India in recurve archery.

Later in the evening, there were just three who showed up to watch Aman Sehrawat beat the World Champion, Han Cheong Song, to win his biggest medal since the Olympic bronze in 2024. In Kumkum’s case, though, it was fascinating to see this massive media contingent from South Korea, who had mostly come prepared for a Korean archer’s win, trying their best to get the tight-lipped Kumkum to give them something to make a copy with.

Even bronze matters for China

India won 11 gold medals over the last couple of days of competition. That’s great for fans but extremely challenging for reporters to cover. China was winning the same number of gold medals every day! It was physically impossible to be at different venues located across Nagoya.

I’ve always been curious about how China covers its athletes. There were 169 gold, 89 silver and 83 bronze medals that their journalists had to cover. I’ve grown up hearing rumours that with that many gold medals, China doesn’t really care about the bronze and the silver.

This isn’t true. For one, China deployed the biggest media team for these Games, bigger than even the local Japanese media. I saw every Chinese medal winner being interviewed by their media. Apparently, some of the most popular stories in China of these Games were about their football team winning bronze, the first in 28 years.

Feng Peiyou, who won marathon bronze, also got a front-page feature-style story on China’s state news service Xinhua highlighting his fight to win the marathon bronze in the last 200m of the race and his origin story of running in the mountains of Guizhou, one of China’s remotest provinces.

Chinese media were not only interested in Chinese stories; they were also curious about outsiders. There were four Indian journalists who had shown up for the final of the rowing events. There was also one Xinhua journalist who wrote a story on bronze medal winner Salman Khan — paired with Satnam Singh in men’s double sculls — whose journey from driving an Uber to the Asian Games podium she found very inspiring.

North Korean pin

I must admit I had more than a few stereotypes coming into these Games. One of them was that North Korea’s athletes are extremely closed off and hardly interact with outsiders. Some of this is true. I did see a North Korean boxer get off the podium and skip the post-medal-ceremony selfie that’s de rigueur for athletes these days. She probably had little idea what that was for.

In one other case, though, a North Korean athlete completely changed that theory. As 19-year-old Kim Hyon-suk walked through the media mixed zone after winning bronze in the women’s 25m pistol event, this journalist asked her for a pin of the country flag, if only to see what reaction it might get. Kim initially looked taken aback but then nodded, smiled and fished out a tiny North Korean flag that she handed over. It’s gone straight on the lanyard of my accreditation card.

This doesn’t work all the time, though. On the last day of the tournament, I saw a North Korean official arguing with Japanese staff over the delay in getting a team bus for his players. The official was arguing in English, so this journalist tried to score a second pin. This time, though, the official simply said ‘India? Very good country’. No pin was shared.

Castles and more humble artefacts

Art below: Nagoya puts a little art where few would think to look, turning its humble manhole covers into miniature canvases of animals, flowers, machinery and even the city’s iconic castle. | Photo Credit: Jonathan Selvaraj

Nagoya’s most well-known tourist attraction is its castle, which was also portrayed in its opening ceremony. But I also enjoyed that some of its most unique art was right below my feet. Nagoya has a culture of making very unique manhole covers. I counted at least seven different designs of animals, geometric shapes, flowers, machinery, and even the castle itself embossed on heavy iron, which was used for the lowly task of covering a drain.

It said something about the Japanese character that even the most humble tasks can be done with excellence.

Origami in the press room

Folded beautuy: Amid the bustle of the Asian Games press room, volunteers found time to fold a little calm into the chaos, with origami cranes brightening work stations and even corners near the bins. | Photo Credit: Jonathan Selvaraj

This pursuit of beauty, even in places that you would think have no place for it, was something I saw often. Even through the chaos of press operations at an Asian Games, it was interesting to see how some volunteers put in bits of personal touch at venues. In the squash and weightlifting venues, volunteers had made and placed origami cranes on work stations and even near trash disposal units.

Politeness overload

The Japanese are an extremely helpful people. A colleague who was having trouble figuring out train directions had the subway train pilot come out of his cabin and point him in the right direction.

They are also very polite. I’d read this before I came to Japan. But I was not prepared for the number of times that I received bows and ‘Arigato Gozaimasu’— Thank you in Japanese — when I simply opened my bag for a security check at a venue.

On my first day, while catching a local bus, I simply paid for my ticket and had the bus driver bowing and saying ‘Arigato Gozaimasu’ to me. She did the same for every one of the people in the queue who paid for tickets.

Eventually, I found myself doing the same whenever someone completed my security check or pointed me in the right direction. At the end of the Games, I find myself saying the same to Nagoya as well.