India finished with a best ever 107 medals, including 28 gold, 38 silver, and 41 bronze with the addition of five golds on the penultimate day of the 19th Asian Games at Hangzhou on Saturday. With that India signed off from the continental meet at fourth spot, a jump of four positions from the 2018 edition in Jakarta where the contingent ended with a tally of 70 medals, including 16 gold.
The Indian contingent at Hangzhou touched the 100-medal mark early on Saturday with the women’s kabaddi team claiming a gold with a win over Chinese Taipei. Elsewhere, the Indian compound archery contingent completed its clean sweep of gold medals to push the tally beyond the three-figure mark. Archer Jyothi Surekha Vennam and Ojas Deotale finished the Hangzhou edition as two of the Indian contingent’s most successful members, winning a third gold medal each in compound archery.
Jyothi registered a commanding 149-145 victory over South Korea’s So Chaewon to bag the women’s individual gold before 17-year-old reigning world champion Aditi Gopichand Swami claimed the bronze by beating Indonesian RZ Fadhly 146-140 in difficult conditions.
Reigning world champion Ojas Pravin Deotale added the Asian Games title to his kitty by beating compatriot Abhishek Verma 149-147 in the final of the compound men’s individual archery competition.
Later in the day, India clinched another three gold medals with Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty beating South Korean pair of Choi Solgyu and Kim Wonho 21-18, 21-16 to claim the historic men’s doubles crown, the top-seeded men’s cricket team clinching theirs after the final against Afghanistan was washed out and the men’s kabaddi team winning their medal after an hour-long interruption. The Indian men’s kabaddi team beat Iran 33-29 in the gold medal contest to record their eighth title in nine editions at the Asian Games.
The Indian women’s hockey team faced an unexpected setback in the semis but bounced back strongly on Saturday to earn a 2-1 win over defending champions Japan to clinch the bronze medal.
Olympian Deepak Punia claimed India’s lone wrestling silver after losing the final of the 86kg category to Iran’s Hassan Yazdanicharati. The 24-year-old Deepak Punia made his way to the final after deafeating Bahrain’s Magomed Magomed R Sharipov, Indonesia’s Randa Riandesta, Japan’s Shota Shirai and Uzbekistan’s Javrail Shapiev.
The wrestling contingent also had four bronze medals from Sonam Malik, Sunil Kumar, Kiran Bishnoi and Aman Sehrawat. However, the biggest setback for the contingent was defending champion Bajrang Punia returning empty-handed from Hangzhou.
The last of Day 14’s medals for India came from chess with both the men’s and women’s teams winning a silver each. Arjun Erigaisi, R Praggnanandhaa, D Gukesh, Vidit Gujrathi and Harikrishna Pentala comprised of the men’s team while Koneru Humpy, Harika Dronavalli, R Vaishali, Vantika Agrawal and Savita Shri represented India in the women’s chess team event.
HITS AND MISSES
The track and field events earned India the highest rewards with 29 medals. Neeraj Chopra and Kishore Kumar Jena’s historic javelin 1-2, steeplechasers Parul Chaudhary (3000m steeplechase & women’s 5000m) and Avinash Sable’s (3000m steeplechase & men’s 5000m) double podiums, Tajinderpal Singh Toor’s shot put title, 4x400m relay teams’ success and Tejaswin Shankar’s national record-breaking decathlon silver were the highlight moments in track and field. Not to forget the rising star Harmilan Kaur Bains, ending up with a couple of silver medals in women’s 800m and 1500m.
Indian shooters also finished with an unprecedented 22 medals, including seven golds, at Hangzhou. Sift Kaur Samra and the men’s 10m air rifle time, headlined by Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, broke world records en-route to their success.
The Indian cricket and kabaddi teams also won gold medals at the Asian Games. While it was a success on debut for both cricket teams, the kabaddi teams reclaimed their throne after the 2018 Jakarta disappointment. In hockey, the men’s hockey team clinched gold and also secured a Paris 2024 Olympics quota, while in badminton, the fast-rising Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty bagged India’s maiden badminton title at the continental meet. The men’s team, meanwhile, took silver and HS Prannoy, with a spirited display despite an injury, bagged the bronze medal.
Squash veterans Saurav Ghosal and Dipika Pallikal led the contingent in Hangzhou. Dipika and Harinder Pal Sandhu paired up for the first-ever mixed doubles gold in Asiad history. The men’s team also won the title while the women’s team settled for bronze. Ghosal added a fifth consecutive individual medal, a silver, to his Asian Games tally. Anahat Singh and Abhay Singh also secured a mixed doubles bronze.
In archery, India’s compound archers completed a clean sweep of titles while recurve teams also bagged two medals. The nation also won its first equestrian gold in 41 years. Rohan Bopanna and Rutuja Bhosale won the mixed doubles tennis title.
In boxing, reigning world champions Lovlina Borgohain (women’s 75kg) and Nikhat Zareen (women’s 50kg) sealed Paris 2024 quota places by winning a silver and bronze, respectively. India, meanwhile, also secured a couple more boxing quotas for Paris via Preeti Pawar (54kg) and Parveen Hooda (57kg).
In Sepaktakraw, the Indian women’s regu team clinched a historic first-ever bronze while paddlers Sutirtha Mukherjee and Ayhika Mukherjee rose to become overnight sensations after beating reigning world champions Chen Meng and Yidi Wang en-route their bronze medal win at Hangzhou.
Wushu player Naorem Roshibina Devi overcame concerns over her family’s safety back in violence-hit Manipur to pick a silver while golfer Aditi Ashok became India’s first from the sport to bag an Asian Games silver.
India also won medals in rowing, sailing, roller skating, canoeing and bridge, to wrap up the event, postponed by a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The campaign in Hangzhou will specially be remembered for the medals won from events where India aren’t traditional powerhouses. At the same time, there were disappointments galore, with the men’s boxing team managing a solitary bronze, two-time Olympic medallist shuttler PV Sindhu crashing out of the quarterfinals, Olympic silver medallist Mirabai Chanu’s painful exit, and India’s basketball team ending their spirited campaign with a quarterfinal exit.