19th Asian Games Hangzhou: Entering the dragon

Hangzhou, September 22

Led by Olympics champion Neeraj Chopra, India will seek to showcase its ascendency as a sporting power at the Asian Games, which opens formally tomorrow after an unprecedented one-year delay due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

India will hope to surpass the 70 medals (16 gold, 23 silver and 31 bronze) won in 2018 in Indonesia with its largest contingent of 655 athletes competing in 39 sports in Hangzhou to show the world the rapid strides the country has made in sports since the historic performance in the Tokyo Olympics.

For a country that aspires to host the Olympics in near future, an eighth place finish in the 2018 Games is far from satisfactory, and it will seek to rise higher in the medal tally in Hangzhou.

India have not finished in the top-5 of the medals tally since the 1986 edition in Seoul.

Though winning 100 medals may seem far-fetched, India is expected to surpass last edition’s count with athletics once again set to contribute the lion’s share. The track and field athletes had won 20 medals in Jakarta, and this time at least 25 podium finishes are expected.

For the first time in the Asian Games’ history, India will be having five Olympics medallists in their ranks, raising hopes of the country grabbing more gold medals than the 16 won in 2018.

The other Olympics medallists are weightlifter Mirabai Chanu, shuttler PV Sindhu, wrestler Bajrang Punia and boxer Lovlina Borgohain.

Still, it is difficult to predict the gold medal count for India. Sindhu has been struggling for some time, Chanu has had fitness issues recently, while Bajrang started training only a few months ago after taking part in the wrestlers’ protest.

Borgohain and Chopra have, though, become world champions recently.

Borgohain will also shoulder the responsibility of being the Indian contingent’s flagbearer during the opening ceremony tomorrow along with the men’s hockey team captain Harmanpreet Singh.

The eight-gold show in athletics in 2018 will be hard to repeat but the hockey (men and women), kabaddi (men and women) teams, chess players and archers can be the game-changers for India

Going by current form, India can win gold in both the men’s and women’s hockey competitions. The men’s and women’s kabaddi teams can also win gold and make amends for the missed chance in Jakarta. The men’s team had won bronze and the women’s settled for silver last time. Shooters had given nine medals in 2018, including two gold, but they may not be able to surpass the tally this time.

In boxing, the likes of Nikhat Zareen and Borgohain are favourites to win a medal but it is difficult to predict the colour. The same is the case with the wrestlers who had won three medals, including two gold, in 2018.

By hosting the world’s biggest multi-sporting event, China is set to unfurl a giant competition which will be the biggest-ever in its history.

No doubt the Olympics is the pinnacle of multi-sporting events in the world but more athletes compete in the Asian Games, with over 12,000 taking part in Hangzhou. — PTI

45 Nations and territories in Asia will compete for 481 gold medals from 40 sports and 61 disciplines

37 It has been 37 years since India finished in the top-5 of the medals tally. It happened last in the 1986 edition in Seoul

5 For the first time in history, India will have five Olympics medallists in their ranks at the Games

70 India won 70 medals (16 gold, 23 silver and 31 bronze) in the last edition to finish eighth

Did you know?

• China is hosting the Games for the third time, having previously staged the event in the southern city of Guangzhou in 2010 and in Beijing in 1990.
• There will be 481 gold medals on offer across 61 disciplines in 40 sports, with 54 competition venues located across Hangzhou and five co-host cities in the surrounding Zhejiang province.
• More than 12,500 athletes from 45 countries are set to compete, surpassing the 11,420 total at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the previous Asian Games record of 11,300 set at Jakarta in 2018.
• Esports, which was held as a demonstration event at the 2018 Asian Games, will be a medal event with seven gold up for grabs.
• Breaking, also known as breakdancing, will debut as an Olympics sport at Paris 2024 and has also been included for the first time.
• Competitions in archery, artistic swimming, boxing, breaking, hockey, pentathlon, sailing, tennis and water polo will serve as Olympic qualifiers for Paris.
• Dragon boat racing, wushu, board games Go and xiangqi, sepak takraw, cricket and kabaddi are among the non-Olympics sports on the programme.

OPENING CEREMONY
Live on Sony 5:30pm

Table tennis
Women’s team group game
India vs Nepal 7:30am
Men’s team group game
India vs Tajikistan 9:30am

Sailing
8:30am onwards

Join Whatsapp Channel of The Tribune for latest updates.

#Asian Games #China #Javelin Throw #Neeraj Chopra