Historic Firsts & Remarkable Comebacks Mark India's Best Asian Games in 60 Years

With 107 medals, india had its most successful Asian Games outing ever. But it's about more than just medals.

Satwiksairaj Reddy and Chirag Shetty won India's first badminton Asian Games gold medal in the history of the games.

(Photo: PTI/The Quint)

Celebrations will continue into the next fortnight, stories told and retold, winners felicitated, the ones who missed, watching with that little twinge of envy, motivating themselves to work harder, yet the overriding theme of India's 2023 Asian Games will be of a campaign that promised 100 medals and delivered.

Of course, few believed it possible. Even the most optimistic and jingoistic understands the vagaries of sport – the breakthrough performances and the heartbreaking failures, that little dip taking a medal away, the opposition a notch better on the day.

More than any sports administrator giving us the heads up on how 100 medals could be achieved, it’s been the due process followed by athletes, the need to dominate, find their feet, believe that medals are possible and think of gold constantly, a slip at least would bring home a silver.

Across the contingent, it would be about bettering personal and season bests, exposure to international competition – whether it was the shooting team, track and field or even the men’s hockey team, the slip up in 2018 in the semi-finals, shaping them to believe that its gold or nothing. Of Avinash Sable, questioning himself after not qualifying for the 3000m steeplechase final at the Budapest World Championship, then promising gold here at Hangzhou and delivering.

Perhaps, and up for debate, the most popular medal would be the one won on the final day – the badminton doubles – India’s first ever gold medal in the sport after it was introduced in 1962; it took 61 years and it arrived with all the bling possible – fabulous play, jiving, beating the World No. 1 pair enroute and a final dominated from start to finish, except for a brief interlude when the Korean pair of Choi Solgyu and Kim Won Ho had taken the lead before Satwiksairaj Reddy and Chirag Shetty won 21-18, 21-16 – and by next week, the icing on the cake, the Indian pair would be ranked World No. 1.

As the evening of October 7th draped itself over Hangzhou and the medal tally counted, respective nations poring over them like accountants, India smiled or rather beamed: 28 Gold. 38 Silver. 41 Bronze. Total 107.

We had 70 in Jakarta. That’s a 52 percent plus increase. Injecting the nation with pride, self-esteem and bringing it dignity in the rarified atmosphere of continental sport. It’s also something that would be noticed by the super-powers like China, Japan, and South Korea sitting above us in the medals tally.

The medal tally after Day 14 of the 2023 Asian Games as India finished their campaign in Hangzhou.

(Photo: The Quint)

From Ojas Deotale with three golds in archery (men’s compound individual, men’s compound team and mixed team) to each of the 41 bronze medals, it has been a similar journey – grit, determination, and a constant battle with circumstances, or of stories that flow below the radar, amidst the frenzied celebration of the athletes or the quiet, dignified smiles that convey relief of having made it.

Equestrian, sailing and rowing surprised. Even wrestling with six medals with all that the sport went through before the Asian Games. Bajrang Punia may have been beaten here but he is a man who has stepped beyond the podium; and something that the fraternity and the youngsters coming up the system will acknowledge in time.

Saurav Ghosal won his 5th consecutive individual medal but the search for gold continues. It was his 9th Asian Games medal in 17 years, and he does good for another four.

Apart from the badminton doubles, HS Prannoy’s bronze in singles gave us a medal after 41 years, the last being Syed Modi winning bronze in 1982.

Sentiment came to the fore when Rohan Bopanna, the oldest man to reach a Grand Slam final at the US Open won his first mixed doubles gold at the age of 43 and a half. Only recently did he end his 21-year Davis Cup career. Bopanna combined with Rutuja Bhosale to win the final 2-6, 6-3, 10-4 against the Chinese Taipei pair of Tsung-hao Huang and En-shuo Liang.

Boxing could have done better than the five-bronze won; We had a gold four years back in Jakarta.

Track and field had nine more medals than last time. In Jakarta, we won 20 which included eight gold, nine silver and three bronze. In China we have 29 which includes six gold, 14 silver and nine bronze.

Seema Punia becoming the oldest Indian track and field athlete, at 40, to win a medal, bronze in the discus, her third medal in the event after winning a gold in 2014 and a bronze in 2018. Harmilan Bains double-silver in the 800m and 1500m, adding to the family treasure after her mother had won the 2002 Busan Asian Games 800m silver.

Olympic and World Champion Neeraj Chopra retaining his javelin gold won in 2018 with the silver also going to India’s Kishore Jena who also bagged a Paris Olympic berth.

It’s been quite a Games for India with Raju Tolani, 62-year-old winning a silver in the bridge with Anahat Singh, the 15-year-old winning two bronze medals in squash.

The clean sweep of the five gold in compound archery may raise the Olympic argument but the event is still seeking an inclusion into the marquee event.

Looking at China’s medal tally of 200 gold, 111 silver and 71 bronze for a total of 382 is a sobering thought. Yet necessary.

However, in that yawning gap, in that discourse of ‘can’t catch up with China’, is an amalgamation of circumstances, of a nation that follows strict process, enabled by political will. Of ours, it is still, largely, fate, limited choices, pecuniary compulsions and sometimes of forces beyond control or just sheer luck like Jena leaving volleyball (not getting into the team) and just trying out for javelin.

In China, for almost every athlete it’s a level playing field when it comes to infra, coaching, sports science and then it’s your talent, determination, hunger. In India, it’s exactly the opposite. For some, it’s all there. And for the others, most of them, it’s simply their burning desire to excel, better their lives and beat the system that ensures they stand on the podium.

At least in that sphere, India’s 107 medals have a golden sheen.