Sweetest century in Indian sports history. How India broke all records to win more than 100 medals at Asian Games
October 7 2023 will forever remain a red-letter day in the history of Indian sports as it gave the country its sweetest century.
India, on Saturday, which is the penultimate day of the 19th Asian Games – India’s participation, however, ends today itself – won its 100th medal at the Games for the first time ever. It was assured that would cross the elusive three-figure mark in the medal tally after the medals won in wrestling, archery (recurve), hockey, sepaktakraw and bridge and medals confirmed by the men’s cricket and both kabaddi teams but official stamp came on Saturday.
Starting the day at 95, India got their assured five medals – four in archery and one in kabaddi – to officially reach their century. Needless to say, this is also India’s best-ever medal haul at the Asian Games. They beat their previous best at the last edition in Jakarta by a huge margin. India had won 70 medals in 2018.
India have so far won 25 gold medals, 35 silver medals and 40 bronze medals.
This is also only the second time India have won more than 100 medals in any of the three major Games – The Olympics, Commonwealth Games and Asian Games. They had won 101 medals in the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi. But India are set to breach that mark comfortably as three more medals are guaranteed to come as the day progresses. And if the wrestlers add to the tally then India can well go past 105 medals by the end of the day.
That’s a mammoth jump from two decades ago when India returned with 36 medals from the 2002 Busan Asian Games. In 2006 Doha, India’s tally was 53 and four years later in Guangzhou it was 65. There was a slight drop at the 2014 Incheon Asiad, which fetched just 57 medals before India were back on track at Jakarta and Palembang with 70 medals five years ago, their best-ever tally then.
The day started with Aditi Swami Gopichand getting bronze in women’s compound archery by beating Indonesia’s Ratih Zilizati Fadhly. Jyothi Surekha Vennam then got India another gold in the same event. She beat her formidable South Korean opponent So Chaewon 149-145.
A few minutes later, it was an all-Indian final in the men’s compound archery with the experienced Abhishek Verma going up against young Ojas Pravin Deotale. In a battle between the master and apprentice, it was the 21-year-old reigning world champion Deotale who emerged winner by two points. But what this meant was India’s medal tally reached 99 with another gold and silver in archery.
The 100th mark was reached after the women’s kabaddi team beat Chinese Taipei in a nail-biting final in the last time to clinch gold.
Athletics (best-ever haul of 29 medals) and shooting (22) have been the biggest contributors to India’s sweetest century. This dominating performance augurs well with the Paris Olympics set to take place next year.
Here are all the medal winners for India at Asian Games 2023
GOLD
Women’s Kabaddi Team
Ojas Pravin Deotale – Men’s Compound Archery (Individual)
Jyothi Surekha Vennam – Women’s Compound Archery (Individual)
Men’s Hockey Team
Jyothi Surekha Vennam and Ojas Praveen Deotale – Compound Archery (Mixed Team)
Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Aditi Gopichand Swami, Parneet Kaur – Compound Archery (Women’s Team)
Ojas Pravin Deotale, Prathamesh Jawkar, Abhishek Verma Compound Archery (Men’s Team)
Muhammad Anas Yahiya, Amoj Jacob, Muhammad Ajmal and Rajesh Ramesh – Men’s 4x400m Relay – Athletics
Neeraj Chopra – Men’s Javelin Throw
Avinash Sable – Men’s 3000m Steeplechase
Tajinderpal Singh Toor – Men’s Shotput
Parul Chaudhary – Women’s 5000m
Annu Rani – Women’s Javelin Throw
India Women’s Cricket Team
Equestrian – Dressage Team
Sarabjot Singh, Arjun Singh Cheema, Shiva Narwal – Men’s 10m Air Pistol (Team)
Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, Rudrankksh Patil, Divyansh Singh Panwar – Men’s 10m Air Rifle (Team)
Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, Swapnil Kusale and Akhil Sheoran – Men’s 50m Rifle 3 Position (Team)
Palak Gulia – Women’s 10m Air Pistol
Manu Bhaker, Esha Singh, Rhythm Sangwan – Women’s 25m Air Pistol (Team)
Sift Kaur Samra – Women’s 50m Rifle 3 Position
Kynan Chenai, Zoravar Sandhu, Prithviraj Tondaiman – Men’s Trap (Team)
Saurav Ghosal, Abhay Singh, Mahesh Mangaonkar, Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu – Men’s Squash (Team)
Dipika Pallikal and Harinder Pal Sandhu – Squash (Mixed Doubles)
Rohan Bopanna, Rutuja Bhosale – Tennis (Mixed Doubles)
SILVER
Atanu Das, Dhiraj Bommadevara, Tushar Shelke – Men’s Archery Recurve (Team)
Kishore Kumar Jena – Men’s Javelin Throw
Jyothi Yarraji – Women’s 100m Hurdles
Sreeshankar Murali – Men’s Long Jump
Avinash Sable – Men’s 5000m
Tejaswin Shankar – Men’s Decathlon
Vithya Ramraj, Aishwarya Mishra, Prachi, Subha Venkatesh – Women’s 4x400m Relay
Muhammed Ajmal, Rajesh Ramesh, Vithya Ramraj, Subha Venkatesan – Mixed 4x400m Relay
Ancy Sojan – Women’s Long Jump
Karthik Kumar – Men’s 10000m
Harmilan Bains – Women’s 15000m
Parul Chaudhary – Women’s 3000m Steeplechase
Harmilan Bains – Women’s 800m
Ajay Kumar Saroj – Men’s 1500m
Muhammad Afsal – Men’s 800m
India Men’s Badminton Team
Aditi Ashok – Women’s Golf (Individual)
Lovlina Borgohain – Boxing Women’s 75kg
Arjun Lal Jat and Arvind Singh – Rowing Men’s Lightweight Double Sculls
India Men’s Eight Team Rowing
Neha Thakur – Sailing Girl’s Dinghy
Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar – Men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions (Individual)
Esha Singh, Palak Gulia and Divya TS – Women’s 10m Air Pistol (Team)
Ramita Jindal, Mehuli Ghosh, Ashi Chouksey – Women’s 10m Air Rifle (Team)
Esha Singh – Women’s 10m Air Pistol (Individual)
Esha Singh – Women’s 25m Pistol (Individual)
Sift Kaur Samra, Ashi Chouksey, Manini Kaushik – Women’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions (Team)
Anant Jeet Singh Naruka – Men’s Skeet (Individual)
Divya TS and Sarabjot Singh – 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team
Rajeshwari Kumari, Manisha Keer, Preeti Rajak – Women’s Trap Team
Saurav Ghosal – Squash Men’s Singles
Ramkumar Ramanathan, Saketh Myneni – Tennis Men’s Doubles
Naorem Roshibina Devi – Wushu Women’s Sanda 60kg
Indian Men’s Bridge Team