IAF Squash Championship 2026 got underway on Monday at the Base Repair Depot, Air Force Station Chandigarh. Six teams from India and abroad will contest the tournament through the week.

The second edition of the championship runs until Friday and combines a team event with an open singles category, bringing together elite national and international players on the same courts over five days of competition, exhibition matches and ceremony, according to an official release.

IAF Squash Championship 2026 draws two overseas sides

Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom sent the two overseas teams. India fielded four squads: two from the Army, one from the Air Force, one from Haryana.

A Sri Lankan side and a British one alongside four Indian teams gives the IAF Squash Championship 2026 a wider international footprint than a purely domestic tri-service meet would have carried, with the veterans' exhibition matches adding a further layer outside the serving ranks.

Air Chief Marshal AP Singh presides over the opening ceremony

Air Chief Marshal AP Singh, Chief of the Air Staff, was the chief guest at Monday's opening ceremony. He welcomed the visiting and domestic contingents and spoke of the role international sporting events play in building camaraderie, mutual respect and friendship between nations, a theme that has run through the championship since its first edition.


A friendly match on the sidelines

Air Chief Marshal AP Singh also played a friendly exhibition match against Air Marshal M Baladitya (Retd) and Captain Dan Peskett of the United Kingdom during the opening proceedings.

Exhibition fixtures involving serving and retired officers alongside overseas players have become a regular feature of the championship's sidelines. Squash has built a loyal following inside the Air Force over its two editions, and the Base Repair Depot courts in Chandigarh have hosted both.

Team and singles events run through the week

The format sets team events against an open singles category, letting sides field full squads while still giving individual players from each team a shot at the singles title. Matches continue at Chandigarh through to Friday.

Squash is part of a wider programme of inter-service and international sport the Indian Air Force has built up over the years, alongside disciplines such as athletics and sailing carried on the broader armed forces sporting calendar, including the Army and Navy's medal haul at the Commonwealth Games earlier this year.

A growing squash calendar for the Air Force

This is the tournament's second running, following an inaugural edition that established the Chandigarh fixture on the domestic sporting calendar. It now sits alongside other tri-service sporting fixtures such as the Durand Cup football tournament, part of a wider push by the Ministry of Defence and the services to use sport as a platform for engagement with foreign militaries. Air power cooperation between India and the United Kingdom has grown across several tracks in recent years, including exercises such as the IAF's participation in Exercise Pitch Black in Darwin, and a squash side from the United Kingdom taking part in Chandigarh adds a sporting dimension to that wider engagement.

The two Indian Army teams and the IAF side will contest the tournament alongside Haryana's state squad, Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom, with the champion decided by Friday.