The Asian Games has crowned teenage champions before, but this edition has witnessed stunning successes by child prodigies, culminating in Yuki Kurihara standing atop the podium aged just 11.
The Japanese primary school student demolished opponents three times his age on the way to a historic gold in esports at Aichi-Nagoya.
He is Japan’s youngest Asian Games champion in history and almost certainly the youngest the Games have ever seen.
Kurihara did not even react after winning the final in Puyo Puyo Champions, a puzzle game where players try to clear their screen of coloured blobs.
The boy, who does not turn 12 until June and wants to be a train driver when he grows up, later explained that he felt “embarrassed”.
