New records get set at almost every edition of the Asian Games, but a handful of performances have proven stubbornly hard to beat — some for years, some for decades. As Aichi-Nagoya 2026 approaches, here's a look at the marks still sitting at the top of the books, and the stories behind them.
Track and Field's Toughest Marks
Men's Marathon — 2:08:21 (Seoul 1986)
Japan's Takeyuki Nakayama set what remains the longest-standing individual record in Asian Games athletics nearly four decades ago. Distance running has evolved dramatically since 1986 — from shoe technology to altitude training protocols — yet no one has managed to run it faster at the Games.
Women's 100m — 11.15 seconds (Busan 2002)
Sri Lanka's Susanthika Jayasinghe set this Games record more than two decades ago. Notably, it's still slower than the standing Asian continental record of 10.79 seconds, set by China's Li Xuemei back in 1997 outside the Games — a reminder that a "Games record" and a region's all-time best don't always belong to the same athlete or the same race.
Women's 200m — 22.48 seconds (Bangkok 1998)
Sri Lanka's Damayanthi Dharsha, a training-era rival of Jayasinghe, set this record at the 1998 Bangkok Games. It has now stood for well over a quarter-century, making it one of the older marks still on the books.
Women's Marathon — 2:21:47 (Bangkok 1998)
Japan's Naoko Takahashi, who would go on to win Olympic marathon gold in Sydney two years later, set this Games record the same year as Li Xuemei and Dharsha — cementing 1998 as one of the most record-rich editions in Asian Games history.
Men's 110m Hurdles — 13.09 seconds (Guangzhou 2010)
China's Liu Xiang, a former world-record holder and Olympic and world champion in the event, set this mark on home soil in 2010. It has held for over 15 years despite continued depth in Asian hurdling.
Swimming: A Younger, Faster Set of Records
Unlike athletics, most swimming records at the Asian Games are comparatively recent — a reflection of how much faster the sport has become with modern training and technique. The 2023 Hangzhou Games alone reset dozens of marks: China's Pan Zhanle clocked 46.97 seconds in the men's 100m freestyle, and South Korea's Hwang Sun-woo went 1:44.40 in the 200m freestyle. As of late 2025, 41 swimming records from that single Games remain standing — an unusually high concentration for one edition, and a sign of how far ahead of the pack China and South Korea have pulled in the pool.
A rare survivor from an earlier era: a South Korean relay mark from Guangzhou 2010 lasted 13 years before finally being challenged at Hangzhou, a rare case of a swimming record from a previous decade holding into the 2020s.
Weightlifting's Long Waits
Weightlifting records tend to have unusually long shelf lives because of how the sport periodically restructures its weight classes — once a class is retired, its record is frozen in the books, sometimes forever. Kazakhstan's Bakytbek Ahtemov set a men's 94kg total record of 400kg at Busan 2002 that stood for 16 years until Iran's Sohrab Moradi finally beat it at Jakarta 2018 — a lift so significant it also broke a 19-year-old world record in the same weight class. Ironically, weight classes changed again immediately after those 2018 Games, meaning Moradi's own mark may now stand indefinitely, since no future Asian Games competitor will ever contest that exact category again.
Why Some Records Last and Others Don't
The pattern across these examples is telling. Athletics records from the 1980s and 90s survive partly because sprint and distance performances plateau once training methods mature, while swimming records fall constantly because pool technology, stroke technique, and rest-interval science are still evolving fast. Weightlifting records, meanwhile, are often frozen not by a lack of stronger athletes, but by the sport itself moving the goalposts.
With Aichi-Nagoya 2026 just weeks away and a stacked field expected across shooting, athletics, and the pool, it's worth watching whether any of these long-standing marks — especially Nakayama's 40-year-old marathon record — finally fall.
Which of these records do you think survives Nagoya — and which one's finally getting broken? Drop your predictions in the comments and let's see who calls it right.
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Key Takeaways
- Takeyuki Nakayama's 1986 marathon time of 2:08:21 remains the oldest individual Asian Games athletics record, nearly 40 years on
- 1998's Bangkok Games produced three still-standing records, including marks by Damayanthi Dharsha and Naoko Takahashi
- Swimming records are far younger, with 41 marks from Hangzhou 2023 alone still standing as of late 2025
- Weightlifting records can freeze indefinitely when weight classes are restructured, as happened after Sohrab Moradi's 2018 lift
- Aichi-Nagoya 2026 could put several of these long-standing marks, including Nakayama's marathon record, to the test