Sushil, Dipa, Manu: India’s Medal Prospects Who Bombed at Asiad

With 69 medals at the concluded 18th edition of the Asian Games in Indonesia, India bettered their previous best medal haul of 65, which came at the 2010 Asiad in Guangzhou in China.

This might be India’s best performance at the quadrennial event, but the medal table could have reflected far more medals if the pre-competition favourites from India had also fired. The Indian contingent could have easily breached the 75 mark.

Many of the athletes, who were expected to win laurels for the nation in Indonesia, unfortunately fizzled out.

The medal count in the shooting and wrestling took a serious hit due to this trend.

Here’s a look at the five Indian athletes who would like to forget their 2018 Asian Games campaign.

Sushil Kumar

India’s campaign in Indonesia got off to worst start possible. Country’s biggest and surest medal hope in wrestling in all international events – Sushil Kumar – was shown the doors in the first round of men's 74 kg category on the very first day of the Asiad.

Sushil lost his bout 3-5 to Adam Batirov of Bahrain in the opening round. Sushil started well with a 2-0 lead but sluggish and out of touch during his bout. With this loss Sushil was out of contention for a gold but still had a shot at the bronze, courtesy the repechage rule. But unfortunately, that wasn’t the case and he had to go back home empty handed.

Interestingly, the two-time Olympic medallist was exempted from selection trials and was given a free passage to the Asian Games team in the men's 74 kg category. Rio Olympics bronze medallist Sakshi Malik (women’s 62kg), Bajrang Punia (65kg) and Vinesh Phogat (women’s 52kg) also got similar advantage.

Sushil had won a gold medal at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games earlier this year.

Dipa Karmakar

Post her heroics at the 2016 Rio Olympics, a lot was expected from DIpa Karmakar at the Asian Games. Her gold medal win at the FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Challenge Cup in Turkey in July this year, made her the pre-competition favourite.

But Dipa failed to remain true to her tag. Gymnast Dipa Karmakar went medal-less at the Asian Games after she finished fifth in the women’s balance beam final with a score of 12.500. She had failed to qualify for the final of her pet event – the vault as she finished eighth with a score of 13.225. She could not qualify in the vault final as her two compatriots Pranati Nayak (13.425) and Aruna Budda Reddy (13.350) finished above her at sixth and seventh respectively. And according to rules only two competitors from a country qualify for the final round.

Thus, Dipa’s maiden Asiad campaign failed to bear any fruit, neither for her or for the country.

Sakshi Malik

After the Commonwealth Games, Rio Olympics bronze medallist, Sakshi Malik, again faltered at a big event. Sakshi along with Vinesh was also a medal hope at Asian Games.

Competing in her first Asian Games, Sakshi lost her bronze medal bout tamely. In the semis, Sakshi paid the price for being over-defensive and was left to fight for bronze in the 62 kg category, which she lost 2-12 to Korea's Hang Jungwon on technical superiority. Her bout was over before the first period ended.

Surprisingly, Sakshi was hardly challenged before her semi-final bout as she easily won against Thailand's Salinee Srisombat (10-0) and Ayaulym Kassymova (10-0).

Since her triumph at the Rio Olympics in 2016, Sakshi hardly has any medal to show off.

Manu Bhaker

Since the start of 2018, Manu Bhaker has been the next big thing in the Indian shooting circuit. Her performance at the ISSF World Cup and Commonwealth Games earlier this year, where she won the gold, only enhanced her reputation. But her Asiad campaign has surely dented that reputation, which boasted of far greater competition compared to the Commonwealth Games.

In Indonesia, she started off well scoring a game's record score of 593 in the qualification round of 25m Air pistol event. But in the final she only managed to finish sixth.

In her pet event of 10m Air pistol event, which gave her a gold in Gold Coast, Manu failed to leave a mark as finished fifth.

In the 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team event, Manu and her teammate Abhishek Verma, didn’t even qualify for the finals.

Prior to the Asian Games, Manu was in the news for banning her parents from accompanying her abroad as she believed her parents were curbing her freedom and restricting her.

Anish Bhanwala

Manu Bhaker wasn’t the only teen medal prospect for India in shooting at the Asian Games. Anish Bhanwala, a year younger to Manu, was also expected to bring home a medal from Indonesia.

The 15-year-old shooter from Karnal in Haryana, already had a Commonwealth gold to his name, after he became the youngest Indian gold medalist at the 2018 Commonwealth Games when he won the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol event. Anish has also won ISSF Junior World Championship and Commonwealth Shooting Championships gold medals.

Anish produced a below-par performance to finish without a medal in the men's 25m rapid fire air pistol event at the Asian Games. After a decent first round of qualification, he had a bad day in office on the second day of qualification. He eventually failed to qualify for the finals, finishing ninth overall with a score of 576.