India scored a remarkable century in the just concluded Asian Games at Hangzhou, China, with a final medal tally of 107.
Athletics was the clear front runner with 29 medals being bagged. For the first time, India was on the medals table in table tennis where the women’s doubles pair — Ayhika Mukherjee and Suthirtha Mukherjee — bagged the bronze medal. India bagged a gold medal for the first time in badminton when the men’s doubles pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty defeated the South Korean pair of Choi Solgyu and Kim Wonho.
Medals were won even in little known events such as Sepaktakraw, Wushu and roller skating.
Track and field
After a rather underwhelming performance in the World Athletics Championship at Budapest, Indian athletes lit up the track and field events by winning 29 medals (6 gold, 14 silver and nine bronze). The stars, of course, were Neeraj Chopra (javelin gold), who was given a run for his money by Kishore Kumar Jena, who briefly led the pack and won silver. Gold medals for Avinash Sable in 3,000 metres steeplechase, Parul Chaudhary in the women’s 5,000 metres and Annu Rani in javelin were the highlights. Harmilan Bains (silver double in the women’s 800 and 1,500 metres) added a dash of glamour on the track. Vithya Ramraj equalled PT Usha’s 39-year record in the 400 metres hurdles in the heats and went on to win a bronze medal.
There were many poignant stories of athletes using sports as a vehicle to break free from a life of poverty and deprivation. Sable, the son of a farmer in drought-prone region of Beed in Maharashtra, Aishwarya Mishra (silver in 4x400 metre relay), the daughter of a vegetable vendor in Mumbai, and Ram Baboo (bronze in 35 km mixed race walk), whose next mission is to reclaim the land that was usurped by a local bigwig in his village in eastern UP, were some of them.
India’s Asiad performance has given a solid platform for next year’s Paris Olympics.