Going from strength to strength on the back of stellar performances by the shooters, rowers and equestrian teams, the Indian contingent at the Asian Games 2023 has bagged 86 medals so far - 21 gold, 32 silver and 33 bronze - and was placed fourth on the medal tally at the time of writing. Leading the pack is China with 333 medals (including 179 gold), followed by Japan (158 medals - 44 gold) and the Republic Of Korea (157 medals - 33 gold). (Updated till 23:35 pm IST, October 5) (Medal Tally | Schedule | Full Coverage | Sports News)
The 655-strong Indian contingent has embarked on a pursuit to bring home the country's biggest medal haul ever this time around in Hangzhou, China. It has a number of memorable performances to seek inspiration from in the previous editions, at an event where India has historically done very well across disciplines.
We don’t have to look far back for India’s best medal-wise performance at the quadrennial event, as it reached the zenith in the most recent one. India’s showing in 2018 at the Jakarta Games was unprecedented, with the contingent returning with 70 medals – 16 gold, 23 silver and 31 bronze – to finish eighth in the overall standings. The previous best was 65 medals at the 2010 edition in Guangzhou, China, which led to the contingent ending up sixth.
In all, India has won 672 medals at the Asiad before the current edition, including 155 gold, 201 silver and 316 bronze. Athletics has been the most happy hunting ground for the country, with as many as 254 medals – 79 gold, 88 silver and 87 bronze – bagged so far.
Kickstarting its Asian Games 2023 campaign on a bright note, India bagged five medals - three silver and two bronze - at the Asiad on Day 1. Hours after participating in a glittering opening ceremony, Indian sportspersons came up with strong performances on Sunday morning to win medals in rowing and shooting.
The Army pair of Arjun Lal Jat and Arvind Singh gave the country its first medal in this Asiad edition, securing silver in men's lightweight double sculls. The women's 10m air rifle team of Ashi Chouksey, Mehuli Ghosh and Ramita Jindal bagged a silver in shooting soon after.
The rowing men's pair of Babu Lal Yadav and Lekh Ram followed it up with a bronze medal, and then the men's coxed eight team comprising Neeraj, Naresh Kalwaniya, Neetish Kumar, Charanjeet Singh, Jaswinder Singh, Bheem Singh, Punit Kumar, Ashish, Uttam Pande won silver to notch up India's third rowing medal of the day.
After her women's team silver earlier in the day, shooter Ramita clinched a bronze medal in the 10m air rifle individual event to swell India's tally to five.
After a strong opening day at the Asian Games 2023, India began the second day on a rousing note, bagging its first gold medal via the men's 10m air rifle team comprising Rudrankksh Patil, Divyansh Panwar and Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar. Aishwary topped it off with an individual bronze in the same event later. The men's 25m rapid fire pistol team followed it up with another bronze to take India's medal tally to 10.
Later, the Indian women's cricket, led by Harmanpreet Kaur in the final and by her deputy Smriti Mandhana in the quarterfinals and semifinals, lived up to expectations to clinch a historic gold medal at the Asian Games. This was Indian cricket's first-ever medal at the Asiad.
Before that, the rowing quartet of Jaswinder Singh, Bheem Singh, Punit Kumar and Ashish won India's first medal of the day as they clinched bronze in the Men's Four final, and another quartet of Parminder Singh, Sukhmeet Singh, Jakhar Khan and Satnam Singh clinched bronze in the men's quadruple sculls.
India claimed the team dressage gold in equestrian sport at the Asian Games 2023, breaking a 41-year-old jinx at the continental event. The team comprising Divyakriti Singh astride Adrenalin Firfod, Hriday Vipul Chhed (Chemxpro Emerald) and Anush Agarwalla (Etro) aggregated 209.205 percentage points on their way to the top podium finish.
On Day 4, the shooters performed spectacularly, winning seven medals, including two gold, to leave the Indian supporters overjoyed. Sift Kaur Samra and Esha Singh shone brightest for India, both winning a gold and silver medal each in the individual and team categories respectively. Sailor Vishnu Saravanan too won a medal, bagging bronze in the Men's Dinghy - ILCA7 event to make it eight in all for India on the day.
Day 5 began with Naorem Roshibina Devi clinching a silver in the women's wushu sanda event. Later, the trio of Sarabjot Singh, Arjun Cheema and Shiva Narwal beat China to claim gold in the 10m air pistol event. Anush Agarwalla then bagged bronze in individual dressage to make it India's second equestrian medal at this edition of the Asiad so far.
On Day 6, eight more medals accrued to the country's medal tally. The shooters continued their podium rush and started the morning with a bunch of medals. Indian men’s 50m rifle 3P team bagged gold and women’s 10m air pistol team clinched silver. The tennis doubles duo of Ramkumar Ramanathan and Saketh Myneni too bagged a silver, and Kiran Baliyan claimed India's first 2023 Asiad athletics medal in shot put at the fag end of the day.
Day 7 saw India defeat Pakistan in the men's team squash final. It was India's 10th gold medal at the Asian Games 2023. Rohan Bopanna and Rutuja Bhosale won the tennis mixed doubles final. Boxers Lovlina Borgohain, Preeti and Narender assured India of more medals whereas Indian shooters Sarabjot Singh and Divya Thadigol delivered the first medal in silver in the 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team event.
On Day 8 of the 19th Asian Games, the Indian trio of Prithviraj Tondaiman, Kynan Chenai and Zoravar Singh Sandhu shot men's trap gold, while Manisha Keer, Preeti Rajak and Rajeshwari Kumari claimed the silver medal in the women's trap team event. With 21 medals including seven gold, Indian shooters have produced their best-ever performance at the Asiad. In women's golf, Aditi Ashok settled for silver following a topsy-turvy performance on the final day of the competition. This was India's first medal in women's golf. Also, Avinash Sable clinched a gold in the 3000m steeplechase. Indias Jyothi Yarraji grabbed silver in women's 100m hurdles.
On Day 9, India added seven medals. Parul Chaudhary and Priti secured silver and bronze medals respectively in the women's 3000m steeplechase, while unheralded Ancy Sojan made a grand entry on the big stage with a long jump silver. The 4x400m mixed relay team got a fortuitous upgrade to second spot due to 'lane infringement'.
India ended day 10 with 69 medals (15 gold, 26 silver and 28 bronze). In cricket, the Indian Men's national cricket team are through to the semi-finals after their win over Nepal. On Tuesday, India's medal charge was led by the athletics contingent with 6 medals while in the morning, it was led by archery. In athletics, Parul Chaudhary (gold, women's 5000m), Annu Rani (gold, women's javelin throw), Tejaswin Shankar (silver decathlon), Mohammed Afsal (silver, men's 800m), Praveen Chitharavel (bronze, men's triple jump), Vithya Ramraj (bronze, women's 400m hurdles) have won medals for India at the 19th Asian Games. Earlier, the day started with Arjun Singh and Sunil Singh Salam claiming bronze in Men's Canoe Double 1000m Event.
