The 1987 South Asian Games, officially the 3rd South Asian Federation Games were a

multi-sport A multi-sport event is an organized sporting event, often held over multiple days, featuring competition in many different sports among organized teams of athletes from (mostly) nation-states. The first major, modern, multi-sport event of interna ...

event, held in

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

from 20 November to 27 November 1987. It was the largest sporting event ever to be held in

, and

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fou ...

as a whole. This was also the first time when

hosted these Games. The games were opened by Indian president R. Venkataraman and the Games Flame was carried by Indian runner

Milkha Singh Milkha Singh (20 November 1929 18 June 2021), also known as The Flying Sikh, was an Indian track and field sprinter who was introduced to the sport while serving in the Indian Army. He is the only athlete to win gold at 400 metres at the Asi ...

, with Leslie Claudius lighting the flame. A total of 10 disciplines were contested in these Games.

was the major medal winner at these events, garnering approximately 43% of all the medals. Seven nations participated in these Games.