China claimed Dressage Team gold for the first time in Asian Games history at Aichi-Nagoya 2026 on Friday.
The Chinese team delivered consistent performances at JRA Equestrian Park in Tokyo (JPN), securing the title with a total of 208.148% – almost three percentage points clear of the Republic of Korea. Host nation Japan took bronze.
Team China celebrate winning Team Dressage gold at the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Games in Tokyo. (FEI / Yusuke Nakanishi)
China’s gold medal-winning team comprised Jiayi Yu and Jackpoint, Jiayi Rao and Geniaal, Zhanzhao Gu and Shakespeare 82, and Yue Wu and Iggy Pop Bek.
Nine teams competed, with 45 horse-and-Athlete combinations taking part. The Team medals were decided on Friday, but the close scores at the top of the Individual classification leave plenty at stake in Saturday’s second qualifier and Sunday’s final.
Jiayi Yu and Jackpoint recorded China’s highest score of 70.265%, a new personal best, which was the second-highest score of the day. The pair are trained by FEI Dressage World Championship 2026 silver medallist Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour.
China’s second-best combination, Jiayi Rao and Geniaal, were the fourth-highest scorers with 69.618%. The pair won the Individual and Freestyle titles at last year’s FEI Asian Championships in Pattaya (THA) and finished less than one percentage point behind Friday’s highest scorer, Korea’s Dongheon Nam.
Zhanzhao Gu and Shakespeare 82 also placed inside the top 10, scoring 68.265%. Yue Wu and Iggy Pop Bek finished 12th on 67.735%, making their result China’s drop score.
The Republic of Korea won silver with 205.265%. Every member of the Korean team was making their Asian Games debut.
Korea’s Nam achieved a new personal best of 70.559% with his 10-year-old gelding Leonidas. Nam won Individual gold at the 2019 FEI Asian Championships in Pattaya and heads into the remaining stages of this year’s competition in first place.
Myeongseok Lee and Rosetti also set a new personal best, scoring 67.971% to finish 10th. Fellow Korean combination Hyunwoo Do and Nina Ricci MP placed 17th with 66.735%.
The Asian Games are being contested in a mixed format for the first time in 2026, allowing both Small Tour and Big Tour combinations to compete. Korea’s Shiwoo Kim and Sir Hubert NRW were the only Grand Prix combination in Friday’s competition and the first to compete at the Asian Games, scoring 62.935%.
Japan claimed bronze on home soil with 204.117%, just over one percentage point behind Korea. Shingo Hayashi and King Leatherdale O recorded the team’s highest score of 69.294%. Hayashi was also the only member of the Japanese team to have competed at an Asian Games before, with all three of his teammates making their debut.
Japan won Team gold on home soil in 1994 and again at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta. This year’s bronze adds another medal to the nation’s record at the Games. Ryuma Hieda and Vagabund 131 scored 67.529%, while Fumiyasu Nishiwaki and Fuerst William achieved 67.294%.
Meanwhile, India – the Dressage Team gold medallists at the 2022 Asian Games – finished just off the podium in fourth.
Among Athletes competing without a team, Aleksandra Maksakova (PLE) recorded the highest score. Maksakova, who trains with Anne van Olst, achieved 69.882% with So Secret – the third-highest score of the day.
Chinese Taipei’s Hsiu-hua Yeh lies seventh in the Individual classification after recording a new personal best of 68.383% with Lorava.
Nam claims Asian Games gold in closely-fought final
Three days of Dressage competition at the Asian Games came down to the smallest of margins at JRA Equestrian Park in Tokyo (JPN). Less than 0.3 percentage points separated the three Individual medallists, with Dongheon Nam (KOR) and Leonidas producing a new personal best of 75.190% to take gold ahead of Jiayi Yu (CHN) and Jackpoint on 75.050%, and Sarah Rao (CHN) and Geniaal on 74.935%.
The 15 combinations in the final had earned their places through two qualifying rounds, with a maximum of two combinations per nation allowed to qualify for the Freestyle.
This year’s Asian Games introduced a mixed-tour Dressage format for the first time, allowing athletes to follow either the Small Tour or Big Tour route. All combinations in the Freestyle final had contested the Small Tour and performed the Intermediate I Freestyle.
Nam and Leonidas had already made their mark on the opening day. Their personal-best score of 70.559% was the highest result in Friday’s Prix St Georges and helped the Republic of Korea claim Team silver. They slipped to third in the combined Individual standings after scoring 68.147% in Saturday’s Intermediate I, but returned to their best when it mattered most.
As the final combination to enter the arena on Sunday, 37-year-old Nam knew exactly what was required. He and the 10-year-old Dutch-bred gelding earned 75.190% to set another personal best, riding to K-Pop music. With no combinations left to start, Nam immediately knew the Asian Games title was theirs.
“Together with my horse, I tried very hard today to do everything. We gave it all. I’m very grateful for Leonidas, he did very well.”
Only 0.140 percentage points separated them from Yu and Jackpoint, while the entire podium was covered by just 0.255 points.
Nam was already an Individual gold medallist at continental level, having won at the inaugural FEI Asian Championships in Pattaya (THA) in 2019 with First Edition. Seven years after his Pattaya success, Nam has now added Asian Games gold with a different horse.
Yu may be a relative newcomer to Dressage at this level, but the 21-year-old has been one of the most consistent athletes throughout the week in Tokyo. She and the Danish-bred Jackpoint began with a personal best of 70.265% in the Prix St Georges, helping China secure its first-ever Asian Games Team Dressage title.
They raised their score to 71.853% to win Saturday’s Intermediate I and move to the top of the combined Individual standings. Their Freestyle in Tokyo was the first they had ever performed in competition, making their score of 75.050% even more impressive. Nam’s final test edged them into second place by the narrowest of margins.
Yu said: “I was extremely focused. I wasn’t aware of anything else, just the music, how my horse was feeling and where I needed to make small adjustments. The only shortcoming today was that I got too far ahead of the music.”
Yu, who trains with Danish Olympic medallist Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour, leaves Tokyo with Team gold and Individual silver at only 21 years of age.
Rao and Geniaal add another medal
Rao and Geniaal were never far from the lead. After contributing to China’s historic Team title, they scored 70.000% in the Intermediate I and moved into second place in the combined standings ahead of the final.
Their 74.935% on Sunday ultimately brought them bronze, only 0.255 percentage points behind the winning score. Like Nam, Rao arrived in Tokyo with a continental Individual title already on her record. She and Geniaal won both the Intermediate I and Intermediate I Freestyle at the FEI Asian Championships 2025 in Pattaya, where they achieved the highest score in each of their three tests.
“I feel like Geniaal has been such an amazing horse here, and I was so pleased with him,” Rao said. “We did all the elements very well.”
The two medal-winning horses, Leonidas and Geniaal, share a connection to Dutch Olympian Dinja van Liere, who previously rode and helped develop both horses before they continued their careers in Asia.
Fourth place went to Aleksandra Maksakova (PLE) and So Secret, who produced strong scores throughout the competition. Their Freestyle score of 74.430% left them only 0.760 percentage points short of gold.
Hsiu-Hua Yeh (TPE) and Lorava finished fifth on 73.600%, while Nynn Puttisombat (THA) and Rock That Tango continued their strong week by placing sixth in the Freestyle with 73.570%. As on each of the previous days, the best-placed home athlete was Shingo Hayashi (JPN), who scored 73.030% with King Leatherdale O.
With the top three separated by less than a third of a percentage point, the Asian Games Individual final offered a fitting conclusion to the first edition contested under the new mixed-tour format.
Results here.
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