India's Asiad glory

The 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia has given India many reasons to applaud. India notched up 15 gold medals – joint highest with the inaugural edition of the 1951 Games in Delhi. The previous best medal haul had been in 2010 in China with 65 medals – this time, the number has been stretched to 69. With 15 golds, 24 silvers and 30 bronze medals, India surpassed the previous best tally of 14 golds, 17 silvers and 34 bronze medals. India is steadily making its mark on international sports, beyond cricket. Here's a quick glimpse at India's performance in key events at the 2018 Asian Games held from August 18 to September 2 in Indonesia.

Athletics

Total Medals: 19 (Seven gold, 10 silver, two bronze)

Athletics has been the largest contributor to India's medal tally since the Games' inaugural edition. The 2018 Games was no different with India grabbing 19 medals, consequently taking the total medals in the sport to 282. Tajinderpal Singh Toor raised the curtain for Indian athletics with gold in Men's Shot Put with a throw of 20.75m, breaking the previous Games record of 20.57m. India's flagbearer, Neeraj Chopra, hurled the javelin 88.06m away, breaking his previous national record of 87.43m to bag the Asiad gold. Swapna Barman, the girl with 12 toes, became the first Indian woman to bag gold in Heptathlon. Besides the dominance of the women's relay team, sprinter Jinson Johnson bagged India's first gold medal in the men's 1500m event after 56 years and his second medal of the Games, after he won silver in the 800m event. Manjit Singh's 800m gold came after 32 years and Arpinder Singh's Triple Jump gold came after 48 years. The other prominent performers included MR Poovamma, Purnima Hembram, G Lakshmanan, Dutee Chand, Muhammed Anas, Hima Das, LG Saritaben, VK Vismaya, Arokiarajiv, MP Kunhu, and A Dharun.

Archery

Total Medals: 2 (Two silver)

Indian men missed out on the gold by a whisker to South Korea after the ensuing shoot-off ended in a draw – the winner was decided by the number of perfect 10s. The women's team also settled for silver despite delivering clinical performances against stronger teams in Philippines and Chinese Taipei before setting up a summit clash against South Korea. The Koreans went on to win the gold with a scoreline of 231-228.

Badminton

Total Medals: 2 (One silver, one bronze)

Hisorically, female shuttlers won individual events for the first time at this Asiad, as PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal went on to win the silver and bronze respectively. Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei defeated Nehwal (21-17, 21-14) before defeating Sindhu (21-13,21-16) to deny India the yellow metal.

Boxing

Total Medals: 2 (One gold, one bronze)

In Boxing, with utter dismay, India came home with just two medals – Amit Panghal showed his heroics on the final day to win gold against the reigning Olympic champion, Hasanboy Dusmatov of Uzbekistan, in the 49kg bout. Earlier, Vikas Krishnan (75kg) settled for bronze after being declared unfit due to an injury he sustained on the left eyelid during his quarter-final bout.

Bridge

Total Medals: 3 (One gold, two bronze)

Making its debut at the Asian Games, the card game earned India three medals. India's gold count reached its all time joint-highest when Pranab Bardhan and Shibnath Sarkar, from Kolkata, clinched the summit clash in the Men's Pair. Sumit Mukherjee and Debabrata Majumder won bronze in the team event. India also won a second bronze in the Mixed-Pairs event.

Equestrian

Total Medals: 2 (Two silver)

As Fouaad Mirza won a sliver in the individual jumping event with a score of 26.40, India's drought in Equestrian since 1982 ended. Mirza lost the gold to Japan's Oiwa Yoshiaki, trailing by four seconds. In the team event, the Indian team comprising Rakesh Kumar, Ashish Malik and Jitender Singh secured another silver with a score of 121.30.

Hockey

Total Medals: 2 (One silver, one bronze)

Regarded as the strongest, the Indian men's hockey team begun the tournament with all guns blazing, registering 76 goals in the opening three games. But a surprising loss against Malaysia meant that they had to settle for a bronze. On the other hand, the women's team reached the final of the Games after 20 years, but looked scratchy in their summit clash against Japan.

Kabaddi

Total Medals: 2 (One silver, one bronze)

Kabaddi has been dominated by Indians since its inception in 1990. The men's team lost to Iran 27-17 in the semifinals and, for the first time, India was denied a gold medal at the Asian Games. To further add to the disappointment, the women's team also lost to Iran in the summit clash.

Martial Arts (Kurash, Wushu)

Total Medals: 6 (One silver, five bronze)

In the events of Wushu and Kurash, India accumulated six medals. In Kurash, P Balhadra and M Jhadav won the silver and the bronze medal respectively in the 52kg event. Whereas, in men's Sanda, the trio of Santosh Kumar, SBP Singh and Narender Grewal won bronze medals in 56kg, 60kg and 65kg respectively. In women's Sanda, Roshibina Naorem won bronze in the 60kg category.

Rowing

Total Medals: 3 (One gold, two bronze)

Despite failure in the Men's Singles Sculls, India came back strong on the last day to clinch one gold and two bronze medals. Dushyant won the third position in Men's Lightweight Double Sculls. The duo of Rohit and Bhagwan Singh also settled for bronze in the Doubles event. In Men's Quadruple Sculls, the team of Sawarn Singh, Dattu Bhokanal, Om Prakash and Sukhmeet Singh clinched the gold medal.

Squash

Total Medals: 5 (One silver, four bronze)

In the women's team event, Joshna Chinappa, Dipika Pallikal, Sunanya Kuruvilla and Tanvi Khanna won the silver medal whereas in the men's team event, Saurav Ghosal, Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu, Ramit Tandon and Mahesh Mangaonkar clinched bronze. In the individual events,India claimed three bronze finishes through Joshna, Dipika and Saurav Ghoshal.

Shooting

Total Medals: 10 (Two gold, four silver, three bronze)

India shoting sojourn at Asiad has been nothing short of memorable. Teenagers Saurabh Chaudhury and Shardul Vihan went on to clinch gold in 10m Air Pistol, whereas Vihan struck silver in Men's Double Trap. Sanjeev Rajput clinched silver in Men's 50m Rifle 3 Positions whereas Heena Sidhu claimed bronze in Women's 10m Air Pistol. India also won bronze in the 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team event comprising R Kumar and A Chandela, while Abhishek Verma won bronze in Men's 10m Air Pistol. Lakshay and Deepak Kumar went on to add a silver each in Men's Trap and 10m Air Rifle respectively.

Table Tennis

Total Medals: 2 (Two bronze)

With India taking impressive strides in Table Tennis in the last few years, many expected the Indian TT contingent to end the 60 year drought and earn the nation's first medal in the sport. India secured two medals in Table Tennis in the 2018 Asian Games with Kamal, Sathiyan along with Manav Vikash, Anthony Arputharaj and Harmeet Desai winning bronze in the Men's Team event and Kamal combining with Batra to win the bronze in mixed doubles.

Tennis

Total Medals: 3 (One gold, two bronze)

India's dominance in the men's doubles event continued with Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan. The tennis medal count could have been higher, but for Leander Paes who opted out in the absence of a doubles' partner. In singles, Prajnesh Gunneswaran won bronze while Ramkumar Ramanathan faltered early.

Wrestling

Total Medals: 3 (Two gold, one bronze)

India could embolden herself with the two gold medals in Wrestling – with Bajrang Punia winning gold in 65 kg Freestyle wrestling and Vinesh Phogat winning the top prize in Freestyle 50kg wrestling. While Punia defeated Japan's Daichi Takatani 11-8 in the final, Phogat outplayed Japan's Yuki Irie to become the first Indian female wrestler to win an Asiad gold. Divya Kakran also won the bronze medal in Freestyle 68kg.