The 19th Asian Games held in Hangzhou, China showed signs of India’s emergence as a superpower on the international stage. With the goal of ‘100 this time’, the Indian team left for the Hangzhou Asian Games. Since the first Asian Games in New Delhi in 1951, India has won more medals in the 19th edition of the Games. In 1951, India was second in the medals tally.
Let alone the 107 medals India has won in the Asian Games. For the first time we have crossed the triple digit medal count. We are ranked fourth. Apart from one or two sports, our Indian athletes have achieved records in 22 different sports at the Asian level. Apart from men, women players are also contributing to the medal tally.This is The Rise of a New India in the Asian Games
In our medal list, athletics, shooting and archery have bagged 29, 22 and 9 medals respectively. More than half of the total number of medals have been won in athletics with 29 including six gold medals, 22 including seven gold in shooting and 9 in archery with five gold.
In the 15-day matches held in Hangzhou, the world watched in amazement as Indian players continued to create records every day, not that we participated in anything. Not only that, India’s progress was evident in team sports as well as in individual achievements. 22 medals have been won in team sports like kabaddi, cricket, hockey and team sports.
Badminton Doubles: Chadwick Rangareddy – Chirag Shetty; Sukirtha – Ahika Mukherjee’s victories in table tennis women’s doubles are remarkable. Indian men’s and women’s chess teams who won silver medals, Ojas Praveen who won gold in archery, Jyoti, Abhishek and Aditi who won silver medals will attract attention.
Not without some setbacks. It must be said that it is unfortunate that he did not win the gold medal in boxing and wrestling in the previous Jakarta tournament. In athletics, eight golds won last time is just as unattainable this time. Another tragedy is that three wushu players from Arunachal Pradesh were unable to participate as China refused entry.
The outside world only knows that 634 athletes from 38 sports participated on behalf of India in the Hangzhou Asian Games. Behind this, for the last five years, the efforts of the Sports Ministry of the Central Government are not being talked about. It is true that in accordance with India’s economic strength, we have shown the desire to achieve success in the field of sports as well as the superpowers.
The ‘Target Olympic Medal Platform Program’ is being implemented by the Sports Commission of India. Talented people are identified and given financial support and training. They are supervised by international level trainers. Like in the West, the focus is on identifying and training athletes to collect medals at international venues. The contribution of state governments should not be underestimated.
It goes without saying that the success of the current Hangzhou Asian Games is the efforts that started in the previous Tokyo Olympics, the 2022 Commonwealth Games and the South Asian Games held a few months ago. With a triple-digit medal record, Indian athletes will face the Paris Olympics in the next ten months
It is a proud moment as India has started making records in international sports as well as making records in space!
