On a super Sunday of drama, determination and domination, India comfortably moved past the 50-medal mark while it continued to chase 100 medals at the Asian Games in Hangzhou. Sunday also saw India taking 15 medals, a record for a single day at the Asiad, with nine of them from athletics. Avinash Sable, with a fine frontrunning style that left the rest of the field numb in the 3000m steeplechase, brought the country’s first athletics gold with a Games record. In contrast, Asian record-holder Tajinderpal Singh Toor, who had struggled with a groin injury the last few months, was a picture of determination as he retained his shot put gold with a last-round effort. There was plenty of drama too as Jyothi Yarraji was first disqualified along with another Chinese athlete Yanni Wu for a false start in the 100m hurdles, then allowed to run under protest and later saw her bronze medal being upgraded to silver after Wu, who had in fact jumped the gun, was disqualified. Athletics had been a gold mine for India at the last Asiad in Jakarta 2018, bringing half of the 16 golds that India won overall and this time shooting has been a major contributor too, bringing seven golds, five of them in team events.
There were some wonderful stories too, such as the equestrian dressage team striking gold after 41 years, and Sift Kaur Samra — who dropped out of the MBBS course to focus on shooting — taking the women’s 50m rifle three-position gold with a world record. And the women’s cricket team winning the title on its Asiad debut should go a long way in making cricket a global sport. Cricket was played at the 2010 and 2014 Asiad, in China and South Korea, but the Board of Control for Cricket in India did not send its teams to these Games. There were some stunning moments too, with India’s Sutirtha Mukherjee and Ayhika Mukherjee shocking host China’s World champions Chen Meng and Yidi Wang on their way to the women’s doubles semifinal in table tennis and the 10-2 hammering of Pakistan in a men’s hockey league game, India’s biggest margin of victory against its arch-rival. Host China is way above the rest, its gold count is nearly 10 times more than India’s, but it looks like India’s young stars have learned to adapt to the big stage better and this augurs well for the future. The badminton, squash, tennis, golf, rowing and sailing stars have all contributed with their good show. And the next few days promise to be eventful ones too.
