India returned from the 2018 Asian Games with a haul of 15 gold medals, equalling their best ever showing at the continental multi-sport event at the inaugural edition in New Delhi in 1951.
The final tally stood at 69 medals, including 24 silvers and 30 bronzes. India’s medals came across 18 disciplines, with athletics winning double the medals of any other discipline.
The Field’s writers take a look at the major disciplines and analyse India’s performances in the same.
Athletics
India’s age-old fears of their athletes failing to perform on the biggest stage were put aside as the track and field contingent came away with seven gold medals.
The flag-bearer, Neeraj Chopra, was truly world-class in the javelin throw as a national record-breaking 88 metre-plus effort saw him win his first Asian Games gold medal. Tajinder Singh Pal Toor went one better, not only breaking the national record, but also setting a Games record in shot put.
The strategy in the women’s 4X400 metres relay was excellent with Hima Das running the lead and it helped India win their fifth-straight gold in the event. Track contributed to three gold medals and other important ones, as Dutee Chand won a medal in 100 metres, India’s first in the event for 20 years.
Muhammed Anas underlined his status as the fastest Indian quarter-miler ever with three silver medals. But the biggest surprise of these Games for India was Manjit Singh, who secured a gritty win in the 800 metres. Swapna Barman’s heptathlon victory was a triumph forged in adversity.
Govindan Lakshmanan’s disqualification from the 10,000 metres after winning the bronze was a low point but there were very few reasons for Indian athletics fans to be disappointed after their showing in Indonesia. While some marks were nowhere near world class, Indian athletics will have to show this consistency at the Asian level before they can jump to the Commonwealth or World or Olympic level.
Badminton
Kidambi Srikanth and HS Prannoy would probably be thanking PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal for winning historic medals in the individual event of the Asian Games and deflecting some attention off them. After the All England Open and the world championships, India’s top two male shuttlers suffered early exits in another major event, as they failed to get past the second round in Jakarta.
Srikanth’s best show in 2018 so far was his run to the final of the Commonwealth Games, which had a very depleted field. Prannoy, meanwhile, hasn’t been able to top his bronze medal at the Asian championship. Compared to their form last year, their run in 2018 has left a lot to be desired.
Srikanth and Prannoy’s slide worryingly comes at a time when their competitors are just about getting their 2020 Olympic preparation started. While Viktor Axelsen was arguably the only other dominant force apart from Srikanth in 2017, the return of Kento Momota and the rise of Indonesians Jonatan Christie and Anthony Ginting this season means Srikanth’s hunt for an Olympic medal is only going to get tougher.
As things stand, Sindhu is India’s only likely medal hope for Tokyo 2020, and this means there has been no progress since 2016. The young doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty do provide hope of nicking a bronze given their spirited performances over the last 18 months, but Indian badminton fans will hope Srikanth and Prannoy are able to find that spark again before the Olympic cycle begins.
Boxing
In a contingent filled with Commonwealth Games medallists, Indian boxers were on a high following the success at Gold Coast but they would always find the going tough in a quality field at the Asian Games.
Vikas Krishan’s injury ahead of his semi-final robbed the Indian of a higher medal than bronze but Amit Panghal’s gold aside, there was little to cheer for in Jakarta. Gaurav Solanki, Mohammad Hussamuddin, Shiva Thapa and Sonia Lather all suffered losses in their first matches as 10 boxers returned with just two medals.
Panghal did extremely well in winning the gold, beating Olympic champion Hasanboy Dusmatov of Uzbekistan. Last time around in Incheon, Mary Kom returned with the only gold medal. This time, Panghal carried the mantle.
Hockey
The Indian hockey contingent, comprising the highest ranked teams (men’s and women’s) of the tournament, was expected to return home with two gold medals from Jakarta. So, a silver medal and a bronze must be disappointing. Especially the bronze, by the men’s team.
Men’s team coach Harendra Singh, before leaving for Jakarta, had said “anything less than a gold would be unacceptable”. So, the defeat against Malaysia in the semi-final (in sudden death) hurt the team and the hockey fraternity in India.
It also spoiled their chance for a direct qualification into the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. Now they, like their female counterparts, will have to play in several competitions over the next one year or so to get to Tokyo.
This, of course, would hamper India’s preparation for the quadrennial sporting spectacle. The women’s team, which fared better than the men’s, fell short on the match that mattered the most. They went down 1-2 to Japan in a tense final. Despite the defeat, they created history by clinching the first women’s hockey silver medal for India in two decades.
Kabaddi
If Indian kabaddi fans gasped when the men’s team lost to South Korea – for the second time in the last two years – in the preliminary round of the 2018 Asian Games, they would have been sent into a comatose state after what happened in the semi-finals against Iran.
For the first time since 1990, when the sport was first played at the Asian Games, India did not win the kabaddi gold in the continental multi-sport event. Iran’s 27-18 win was not just comprehensive, it was the kind that could propel the dawn of a new era – one where India is no longer the dominant force it has been so far.
Considering the success of Pro Kabaddi over the last four years, Indian kabaddi seems to have received a shot in the arm, with players becoming household names and crorepatis. However, if you peel through the layers and go beyond the glitz and glamour of the league, everything isn’t quite so hunky-dory.
While Iran deserve credit for the way they executed their plan against the seven-time champions, India have only themselves to blame for the mess they are in. Perhaps this rude wake-up call is coming at the right time.
Shooting
After athletics, shooting was the most successful sport for India at the 2018 Asian Games with nine medals – two gold, four silver and three bronze.
Compared to the previous Asian Games, there was significant improvement from an Indian point of view. Four years back, India had won nine medals as well, but they were from team events, while Jitu Rai was the solitary gold medallist.
This time, despite the lack of team events, India won a medal on all but two days of shooting and missed the final in only five events, finishing third in the medals tally for the sport. China topped the tally with eight gold (15 total) and South Korea was second three (12).
But the highlights of the campaign were delivered by 16-year-old Saurabh Chaudhary winning gold in 10m air pistol and Rahi Sarnobat becoming the first Indian woman shooter to win an Asiad gold. The most important result was the consistency and confidence seen in the performances of both youngsters like 15-year-old Shardul Vihan, seasoned shooters like Sanjeev Rajput and Heena Sidhu, and the surprise medal of 29-year-old India debutant Abhishek Verma.
Chaudhary and Verma also gave India its first ever double podium in shooting. Medals were expected from Commonwealth Games gold medallists Manu Bhaker and Anish Bhanwala, but they could not deliver this time. Bhaker did have a Games record score in qualifying, though. However, the overall turnover of the shooting contingent was impressive and set the tone for a record medal tally.
Squash
On paper, India have had their best campaign (in terms of number of medals) at the Asian Games since squash was introduced in 1998. But somehow, the disappointments still outweigh the positives for India’s squash contingent.
For starters, the host broadcaster’s decision to not produce squash for television meant the updates were few and far between and any review will have to results-based and not performance-based.
Saurav Ghosal was the top seed in men’s singles for the edition running, and he finished with a bronze compared to 2014’s silver. His defeat in the semi-finals after leading 2-0 was reportedly due to a leg strain he suffered during the match. While Dipika Pallikal lost to eventual gold medallist Nicol David, Joshna Chinappa’s defeat in the other semi-finals to a young Malaysian was a disappointment in her own words. In the team event, the men paid the price for losing their last group fixture to face Hong Kong in the semi-final instead of the final.
Off the court, murmurs about players having to coach themselves continued with Dipika and Joshna continuing to voice their concern over the lack of a full-time foreign coach to travel with the team for major events.
The obvious highlight of the campaign was Joshna defeating David in the women’s team event as India upset Malaysia to reach the final yet again. Five medals is still a worthy return overall but all is not well seemingly with Indian squash.
Table Tennis
Table tennis may have only added two bronze medals to India’s overall medals tally but the impact of the two medals would be a lot more than that.
The Asian standard in the sport is as high as the world standard and Indian paddlers have never been in contention for any medal in the past. But having clinched a bag full of medals in the Commonwealth Games by getting the better of Singapore, the Indian contingent showed that they were now ready to challenge the best in Asia by winning the bronze in mixed doubles and the men’s team event.
These were the first medals for India from the table tennis arena in the history of the Asian Games and that in itself should show the enormity of the achievement.
One can argue that Japan did not field their top three singles players in the Asian Games and that helped the men’s team in the quarter-finals. But having said that, the team still had three players ranked higher than the Indians. Sathiyan G and the experienced A Sharath Kamal played out of their skins to beat them and book a semi-final berth.
In mixed doubles, the team probably played a gamble by teaming Sharath with Manika Batra when the ranking of Batra and Sathiyan was higher. But it paid off as the combination worked perfectly well under pressure situations and defeated two top class pairs to reach the semi-finals.
Tennis
The Indian tennis contingent returned with three medals from the Asian Games – Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan won gold in men’s doubles while Ankita Raina and Prajnesh Gunneswaran got the bronze in women’s and men’s singles respectively. While the men’s doubles pair were the top seeds and expected to top the podium, both the singles players were surprise medallists of sorts. Both of them lost to the top seeds in their respective semi-finals.
India No 1 Raina became only the second Indian after Sania Mirza to win a women’s singles medal at the Asian Games. The sixth seed played all three events and using her experience – she has played at Incheon and was unbeaten in the Fed Cup earlier this year – she reached the singles semis to assure herself of a medal. She lost to top seed and world No 34 Zhang Shuai.
Prajnesh’s medal was also a surprise as the expectations were hinged on second seed Ramkumar Ramanathan, whose early loss was a big miss for India. However, the 28-year-old did enough to outlast Kwon Soon-woo in a marathon quarter-final lasting almost four hours to reach the semis where he went down to top seed Denis Istomin.
Top seeds Bopanna and Sharan had a brief hiccup but managed to hold on and claim gold. However, the mixed doubles pairing of Raina-Bopanna went down in the quarters, one match short of a medal.
In the absence of the seasoned Sania Mirza (who is pregnant) and Leander Paes (who pulled out days before due to the absence of a specialist doubles partner), this was not a bad result. However, India had won five medals including a mixed doubles gold at Incheon four years ago.
Wrestling
Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia pulled off impressive victories but all is not well with Indian wrestling, it would seem. Vinesh’s win over nemesis Sun Yanan was one of the highlights, as was defeating Yuki Irie in the final, but it is important to remember that Yui Sasaki, who did not feature in Jakarta, will present a formidable challenge at the World Championships.
Divya Kakran was the only one other wrestler to return with a medal – bronze – as the Greco-Roman contingent once again returned without a podium finish. The number of gold medals, two, was higher than Incheon, one, but many Indians lost in medal bouts.
Sushil Kumar’s loss to Adam Batirov was much talked about, and the two-time Olympic medallist put it down to a lack of match practice. Pooja Dhanda, Sakshi Malik, Pawan Kumar, Sumit Malik and Harpreet Singh all lost bronze medal bouts.
Other sports
While the big stars came good when it mattered, the contribution of fringe sports or sports that were added to the Asian Games for the first time cannot be overlooked.
While bridge, the card game, took India’s gold medal tally to 15 on the penultimate day of competition, martial arts variants kurash and wushu added a silver and five bronze to the tally. Even sepaktakraw, a foot-volley game that has been restricted to certain pockets of the country, clinched its first ever bronze medal while equestrian players came home with two silver after the controversy surrounding the selection process and changing of the horses at the last moment.
Even sports like rowing and sailing, in which India has struggled to win medals in the past, showed a lot of improvement. Indian rowers claimed only their second Asian Games gold in men’s quadruple sculls, while the sailors will come back home with three medals.
The one sport that definitely needs to find a mention is swimming. Though India did not win any medal in the pool after bagging a bronze each in the earlier two editions, the likes of Virdhawal Khade, Srihari Natraj and Co showed that they have improved by leaps and bounds in the last few years and could be regular medal hopes at the continental level if they build on the progress so far.
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