The World Yogasana Championship is the first global championship for Yogasana as a competitive sport. The inaugural edition ran from 4 to 8 June 2026 at EKA Arena, TransStadia, in Ahmedabad, India, with more than 500 athletes from 78 countries. India topped the medal table, and Indonesia won seven medals, all of them by YogaFX graduates.
This guide covers the results, how Yogasana is judged, how the event differs from other "world championships" with similar names, and where the sport is heading. It draws on the experience of Mr. Ian Terry, E-RYT 500, founder of YogaFX in Bali. He was Indonesia's National Coach in Ahmedabad. He's also Master Trainer of the Republic of Indonesia Yogasana Sports Federation.
World Yogasana Championship 2026 at a Glance
If you only need the key facts, here they are in one place. Each figure comes from the organisers, India's government, or the national press.
| Detail | World Yogasana Championship 2026 |
|---|---|
| Edition | 1st (inaugural) |
| Dates | 4 to 8 June 2026 |
| Venue | EKA Arena, TransStadia, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India |
| Governing body | World Yogasana (international federation) |
| Host federation | Yogasana Bharat |
| Participation | 500+ athletes from 78 countries |
| Mascot | Veer the lion |
| Top nation | India: 114 medals, including 102 gold |
| Indonesia | 7 medals: 1 gold, 2 silver, 4 bronze |
The field grew fast before the start. In May, the plan was for about 40 countries. By the opening day, The Bridge reported 78 nations and more than 500 athletes on the floor.
The event had heavy official backing, too. India's Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, the Ministry of Ayush and the Sports Authority of India all supported it, and India's Prime Minister formally opened the championship. As a result, the official PIB release on the opening treated it as a national sporting milestone, not a niche yoga gathering.
Who Won the World Yogasana Championship 2026?
India won the World Yogasana Championship 2026 by a wide margin. The host nation finished with 114 medals, including a century of golds (102), according to ANI's closing report in The Tribune. That's no surprise, because India has run national events since it made Yogasana an official sport in 2020.
For Indonesia, the result was historic. Two athletes, both trained at YogaFX in Bali, won every one of the country's seven medals. India's own cultural office in Jakarta, ICCR Jakarta, confirmed the result in public.
Ivara Candra Kartika: gold and bronze
Ms. Ivara Candra Kartika graduated from the YogaFX Bikram Hot 26&2 teacher training in 2023. In Ahmedabad she won one gold and one bronze. Her climb was steady: gold at FORNAS VIII in Indonesia in July 2025, then silver at the Asian Yogasana Championships in the UAE in August 2025.
Mr. Ian likes to point out where she started. Just three years earlier, she was still struggling with Dandayamana Dhanurasana (Standing Bow Pulling Pose). Today she teaches at the YogaFX studio in Seminyak and leads the posture demonstrations in the online course.
Arkan Fauzan Riyanto: five medals
Mr. Arkan Fauzan Riyanto, a 2022 graduate, came home with two silver and three bronze. The Tangerang City Government reported his five-medal haul after he returned home.
He wasn't a newcomer to podiums, either. He had already won the singles title at FORNAS, Indonesia's national sports festival, three times: in 2022, 2023 and 2025.
Why does this matter beyond the medal count? Because it shows that a small country, with a small team, can win at the World Yogasana Championship. Indonesia didn't send a big squad. It sent two well-coached athletes who knew their postures inside out.
That's also why the result got so much local press. For many people in Indonesia, it was the first time they'd heard that yoga could be a sport at all, let alone one with a world title.
How Yogasana Is Judged: Categories and Scoring
Yogasana is yoga postures done as a judged sport. Athletes perform set poses or routines, and a panel gives each one a score for form and control. That means it's closer to gymnastics or diving than to a studio class.
In Ahmedabad, there were seven official categories, all judged to one set of rules. For example, India's team trials grouped them into four main types:
- Traditional Yogasana. One athlete performs set postures and holds each one. Judges reward stillness, good form and control.
- Artistic Yogasana. A choreographed routine, solo or in pairs, linking difficult postures with smooth transitions.
- Rhythmic Yogasana. Pairs perform a routine set to music, scored partly on synchronisation.
- Athletic Yogasana. Routines built around strength-heavy postures, such as arm balances and inversions.
In every category, judges look for the same things: strength, flexibility, balance, endurance and precision. A posture that collapses early, a wobble in a balance, or a missed hold time all cost points.
What athletes actually train
Mr. Ian's coaching rule for competitors is the same one he gives beginners in the hot room: consistency beats intensity. Regular practice changes the body more than occasional heroic sessions. In practice, an athlete's week usually covers these areas:
- Daily posture practice, so alignment holds under fatigue and nerves.
- Hold-time drills for balancing postures, because stillness is what the judges see first.
- Posture clinics with a coach, where small errors get corrected one at a time.
- Routine rehearsal under time pressure, for the artistic and rhythmic events.
For athletes from the 26&2 tradition, this was familiar ground. The same postures in the same order, every class, builds exactly the body awareness that judges reward. Our guide to Bikram yoga for athletes explains how that carries over to other sports.
What the Research Says About Posture Training
So far, no study has looked at Yogasana athletes on their own. Even so, research on the hot 26&2 sequence shows why it suits people who need both strength and flexibility.
- Strength and flexibility. Tracy & Hart (2013) reported a 20% increase in posterior chain strength after an 8-week Bikram programme, along with better flexibility.
- Training intensity. Porcari et al. (2014) measured an average of about 80% of maximum heart rate across a 90-minute class.
- Overall evidence. A 2025 systematic review by Willmott et al. pooled 43 studies with 942 participants and found benefits for flexibility and well-being.
These findings describe the practice in general, not medal outcomes. Results vary from person to person. If you have a heart condition, an injury or are pregnant, consult a healthcare professional before you start intensive posture training or practise in heat.
World Yogasana vs IYSF: Two Different "World Championships"
This is where many searchers get confused. Two different groups run events they call a "world championship" for yoga postures. They aren't the same organisation, and their medals don't belong to the same ranking.
| Event | Organiser | 2026 edition | Format |
|---|---|---|---|
| World Yogasana Championship | World Yogasana (international federation), hosted by Yogasana Bharat | 1st edition, Ahmedabad, India, 4 to 8 June 2026 | Seven categories, national teams, government-backed |
| World Championship of Yogasana Sports | International Yoga Sport Federation (IYSF) | 17th edition, Italy, 5 and 6 December 2026 | Individual athletes approved by national member federations |
The IYSF event is older. It has run annual championships for years, with national federations such as USA Yoga sending athletes. In contrast, the World Yogasana Championship in Ahmedabad was brand new. It runs under a different body, and it's built around national teams and the push for the Olympics.
So when you read "world yoga championship 2026 winner", check which event the article means. The Indonesian medals described here, for example, were won at the World Yogasana event in Ahmedabad.
Is Yogasana Going to the Olympics?
Not yet, but that's the goal. The World Yogasana Sports Federation aims for an Olympic test event by 2032 and a full place at the Games by 2036. Both still need a yes from the International Olympic Committee.
Several steps are already in place:
- 2020: India's sports and Ayush ministries formally recognised Yogasana as a competitive sport.
- 2024: the Olympic Council of Asia approved Yogasana as a demonstration sport for the 2026 Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan.
- May 2026: India's sports minister pledged to push Yogasana onto the Olympic programme, linked to India's bid to host the 2036 Games.
- June 2026: the first World Yogasana Championship gave the sport a global event with national teams, which multi-sport bodies look for.
The debate: should yoga be competitive at all?
Not everyone welcomes the move. Some prominent spiritual teachers in India argue that yoga is a path of self-discovery, and that turning it into a medal sport misses the point. It's a fair concern, and it's worth taking seriously.
Mr. Ian's view is practical. Competition is one small door into the practice, not a replacement for it. Most people who start yoga because of a championship clip will never compete. Instead, they'll find a class, and that's where the real benefit is.
How to Start Competing in Yogasana
Watching the World Yogasana Championship makes a lot of people ask the same thing: could I do that? The honest answer is that most top athletes started as ordinary students. So the first steps are simple, even if the top level is hard.
- Build a daily practice. Pick one fixed sequence and practise it most days. That way you can see small gains in each posture week by week.
- Work with a coach. You can't see your own hips or knees in a posture. A trained eye spots the small errors that judges mark down.
- Find your national body. Each country selects its team through its own federation and trials. In Indonesia, for example, that route runs through the national Yogasana federation and events like FORNAS.
- Enter local events first. Club and regional events teach you how to perform under nerves, with judges watching.
- Learn the rulebook. Each category has its own posture list, hold times and scoring sheet. Study them before you build a routine.
Age isn't a barrier, either. Team USA's squad for Ahmedabad, for instance, ranged from 10 to 55 years old. Because events are split by age group, you compete against people at a similar stage of life.
When is the next World Yogasana Championship?
World Yogasana hasn't yet published a date or host for the second World Yogasana Championship. The best place to check is the official World Yogasana website, along with your national federation. In the meantime, regional events such as the Asian Yogasana Championship keep the calendar busy.
Indonesia's Road to the World Yogasana Championship
Indonesia's seven medals didn't come from nowhere. They were the result of a pathway built over several seasons, through national and Asian events, with a small coaching team behind it.
- FORNAS, Indonesia. This national sports festival gave athletes regular events at home. Arkan won in 2022, 2023 and 2025, and Ivara took gold in July 2025.
- 6th Asian Yogasana Championship, Fujairah, UAE (August 2025). More than 160 athletes from 16 countries competed. Ivara won silver.
- World Yogasana Championship, Ahmedabad (June 2026). Seven medals for Indonesia, with Mr. Ian as National Coach.
Off the mat, the team had help from another graduate. Mr. Slamet Ariyanto (class of 2024) chairs the Yoga Practitioner Association of Indonesia (PPYNI). He also manages the national team. So he handles the admin, while Mr. Ian leads the coaching.
In June 2026, the Republic of Indonesia Yogasana Sports Federation appointed Mr. Ian as Master Trainer, in recognition of his contribution to the sport's development in the country. Only an external federation can grant that role, as our explainer on what a Master Trainer is sets out. He has also met the UAE Minister of Sports and holds ongoing talks with World Yogasana's leadership about the Olympic roadmap.
From Teacher Training to the World Stage: the YogaFX Pathway
Both Indonesian medallists started the same way: as teacher trainees in Bali. That matters, because neither of them joined a sports academy. They learned the Original Hot 26&2 sequence, the dialogue and posture alignment, then kept practising every day.
Across national, Asian and world competition, YogaFX graduates have now won 12 medals: 5 gold, 3 silver and 4 bronze. Mr. Ian is clear that medals measure a handful of athletes, not the whole school. That's why he points prospective students to independent sources too: the Yoga Alliance public profile, published results and graduate reviews. You can see the wider numbers in Ian Terry's track record.
- Lineage. Mr. Ian trained for five years, from 2014 to 2019, directly with Bikram Choudhury, the founder of the Bikram Hot 26&2 method.
- Experience. More than 12,000 teaching hours and 1,500+ graduates from over 80 countries since 2017.
- Certification. Yoga Alliance RYT 200 plus a Bikram Hot 26&2 200-hour certificate, in one hybrid training.
- Next MasterClass. Check-in Sunday 24 January 2027, check-out Friday 29 January 2027, in Seminyak, Bali, after a self-paced online pre-course.
You don't need competition plans to train with Mr. Ian. Most trainees simply want to teach, or to deepen their own practice. However, if you're curious where steady practice can lead, Ivara's story is a good example. Full dates, formats and costs are in our guide to Bikram yoga teacher training in Bali.
FAQ
What is the World Yogasana Championship?
The World Yogasana Championship is the first global championship for Yogasana as a competitive sport, governed by World Yogasana. Athletes compete in seven categories, including traditional, artistic and rhythmic Yogasana, and judges score precision, alignment, strength, flexibility and balance. The first edition was held in India in June 2026.
Where was the first World Yogasana Championship held?
The first World Yogasana Championship was held at EKA Arena, TransStadia, in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, from 4 to 8 June 2026. Yogasana Bharat hosted it under World Yogasana, with support from India's Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, the Ministry of Ayush and the Sports Authority of India.
Who won the World Yogasana Championship 2026?
Host nation India topped the medal table with 114 medals, including 102 gold. Indonesia won seven medals: one gold, two silver and four bronze. All seven came from two YogaFX graduates, Ivara Candra Kartika and Arkan Fauzan Riyanto, coached by Mr. Ian Terry as Indonesia's National Coach.
How many countries participated in the World Yogasana Championship?
Athletes from 78 countries took part in the inaugural World Yogasana Championship, with more than 500 athletes on the competition floor. Early announcements in May 2026 expected about 40 countries, so final participation was nearly double the original forecast, across Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas.
Is Yogasana in the Olympics?
Not yet. The World Yogasana Sports Federation aims for Olympic test-event status by 2032 and full inclusion by 2036, subject to IOC recognition. In 2024 the Olympic Council of Asia approved Yogasana as a demonstration sport for the 2026 Asian Games, an important step on that path.
Still have questions? Message Mr. Ian and the YogaFX team on WhatsApp and we'll answer them personally. It doesn't matter if you're asking about competition, teacher training in Bali, or simply how to start your own daily practice. Mr. Ian reads and answers these messages himself, so you'll get a real reply from a real coach.
