India make remarkable strides at the Asian Games in Hangzhou

At the Asian Games 2023, India won 107 medals - its highest ever finish in the history of this competition.

The Asian Games 2023 has proven to be a watershed moment for India and its sporting aspirations within the continental landscape. Finishing with 107 medals at Hangzhou, the nation entered the elite sporting club of countries with a three-digit tally. China, Japan, and Korea are the usual suspects in this league and consistently rack up these numbers. Hosts China, of course, clinched 200 gold medals and are in a different league altogether.

However, India’s performance at the Asian Games shows a remarkable improvement and the psychological hurdle has now been banished. In the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, India had secured 70 medals which included 16 golds. By the time the curtains were drawn on their campaign in Hangzhou, Indian athletes had secured 28 gold, 31 silver, and 48 bronze medals!

When it comes to positions on the medal tally, India finished fourth in Hangzhou - its third best in Asian Games history after the second-place finish in New Delhi in 1951 and the third-place in Jakarta in 1962.

India had fielded its largest ever contingent of 655 athletes at the Asian Games. The 100 medal-mark was relayed in the media as an achievable objective with ad campaigns like ‘Iss baar 100 paar’ focusing on the same. However, the 100 medal-milestone actually looked like touch and go until the track and field athletes accelerated that process with their superb performances and finished what shooting had started when the Games were declared open by Chinese president Xi Jingping on September 23.

Despite what the medal tally suggests, India’s start to the Asian Games was anything but smooth. The football squad underwent plenty of changes with last minute additions and removals from the squad. Meanwhile, the equestrian, wrestling and boxing campaigns faced legal challenges and athletes in these disciplines didn’t have the best preparation schedules because of protests and court wranglings.

Matters also took a controversial turn when three Wushu athletes from Arunachal Pradesh faced visa and accreditation issues due to China’s border infringement policies in Arunachal, but eventually, all three saw their Asian Games dreams ending on the big stage.

The shooting range proved to be a happy hunting ground for Indian athletes in contrast to the recent disappointments in big tournaments. They finished with 22 medals, including seven golds - the most by any participating nation - and they went toe-to-toe with Chinese competitors, showing remarkable composure.

Shooting’s contribution to India’s medal tally was only outdone by athletics with 29 medals. Reigning Olympic and world champion Neeraj Chopra defended his Asian Games gold medal from 2018 and his consistency serves as a reminder that Olympic podiums are within Indian athletes’ reach.

Archery also produced five gold medals as well as nine medals in total.

History was also made across several sports at the Asian Games. The team dressage gold was the first ever for India in Asian Games, just like Satwik-Chirag's top-place finish in badminton and rifle shooter Sift Kaur Samra's gold with a world record in the women's 50m 3 Positions final.

Boxer Nikhat Zareen missed the gold medal and it served as a timely reminder for her to pull up her socks ahead of the Paris Olympics. Silver medal was also the fate for Aditi Ashok who had finished fourth in Tokyo.

The Indian men’s and women’s teams ended up winning the gold medals in cricket’s debut at the Asian Games but the lack of competition as well as the effect of weather raised questions over the suitability of the sport in multi-sport Games.

It was heartening to see India defend its stranglehold in difficult sports like hockey, kabaddi, table tennis and badminton as most of the elite players in these sports come from Asian countries. The bronze medal won in table tennis by Ayhika and Sutirtha Mukherjee beating China in quarters was yet another sensational moment at the Asian Games.

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