India finished 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games with a tally of 107 medals – 28 Gold, 38 Silver and 41 Bronze. As shown in Table below, India medal tally in 2023 Asian Games is superior in quantity and quality, compared to past five games where India participated since 2002. In overall medal tally, India stood at fourth position behind China, Japan and South Korea in medal tally.
| Year | Country | Total | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| 2022 | Hangzhou | 107 | 28 | 31 | 41 |
| 2018 | Jakarta | 70 | 16 | 23 | 11 |
| 2014 | Incheon | 57 | 11 | 10 | 36 |
| 2010 | Guangzhou | 65 | 14 | 17 | 34 |
| 2006 | Doha | 53 | 10 | 17 | 26 |
| 2002 | Busan | 36 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
Looking at the Table above, it becomes clear efforts of Sports Ministry of Government of India towards encouraging sports and sports people is bearing fruit. Creation of Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS), recruiting private groups like Jindal, Reliance, TATAs etc, providing extensive training, both home and abroad, making available foreign coaches and modern coaching ideas, exposing athletes to international meets, and rewarding athletes after success etc., are giving results.
This Asian Games, India got maximum number of medals from Athletics followed by Shooting. It is good to see more and more Indian men and women are taking up medium distance running, relay race, high jump, long jump, steeple chase, hurdle race etc. and excelling in the sport.
What an Olympic medal can do to a sport, can be guessed from Indian success in javelin throw. Not only India has got a backup in Kishore Jena, a silver medallist in Asian Games, women also won Gold in the sport.
India had invested heavily in shooting. Results are for all to see. Shooting gave us second highest number of medals followed by archery. Many of the winners were hardly in their teens. Looking good for Indian sports future.
Among raquet sports, we were hopeful of a lot of medals in Badminton, given our bench strength. We won only three medals in Badminton. Stars like Kidambi and Sindhu lost. Lakshya did not play individual event.
Squash gave us four medals. Indomitable Sourabh Ghoshal and Deepika Pallikal leading the charge. Tennis got us two medals and Table Tennis one. Manika Batra and Sharath Kamal did not reach medal rounds. Aihika and Suthirtha lost to more experienced opponents and settled for Bronze.
| Discipline | Total | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| Athletics | 29 | 6 | 14 | 9 |
| Shooting | 22 | 7 | 9 | 6 |
| Archery | 9 | 5 | 1 | 3 |
| Rowing and Sailing | 9 | 5 | 4 | |
| Wrestling | 6 | 1 | 5 | |
| Boxing | 5 | 1 | 5 | |
| squash | 4 | 2 | 2 | |
| Badminton | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Hockey | 2 | 1 | 1 | |
| Cricket | 2 | 2 | ||
| Kabaddi | 2 | 2 | ||
| Tennis | 2 | 1 | 1 | |
| Table Tennis | 1 | 1 | ||
| Skating | 2 | 2 | ||
| Golf | 1 | 1 | ||
| Bridge | 2 | 2 | ||
| Chess | 2 | 2 | ||
| Horse Back Riding | 2 | 1 | 1 | |
| Wushu | 1 | 1 | ||
| Sepaktaraw | 1 | 1 |
Many disciplines, not very well known, like horse back riding, sailing, roller skating, WuSu, Golf, Bridge, Chess etc got us medals. Good that India is coming out not as one sport country. Winning medals may encourage more people to take up these sports.
India did well in team sports like Cricket, Hockey and Kabaddi. Gold in men’s Hockey is very sweet. Indian Hockey had been losing it’s glory. Even after playing in Round Robin segment, Indian teams used to lose their focus in knockout stages. Not this time. Indian Team looked like a well oiled machine, where speed was good, pass receiving was good, as were team chemistry and fitness. Players didn’t get tired at the end of periods or complacency did not set in even with good lead. From the land of legendary Dhyan Chand, India is expected to.play such flawless Hockey.
We had hoped for much success in Boxing and Wrestling. India had won medals in Olympics from these disciplines. But this time, our strike rate was low. Given Olympic is hardly a year away, results of Asian Games should act as alarm bell.
Though India has improved her medal tally considerably from past Asian Games, we are still far away from the top three in Asia in overall medal number and gold medal count.
| Country | Total Medals | Gold Medals |
| China | 358 | 188 |
| Japan | 170 | 47 |
| South Korea | 175 | 37 |
| India | 107 | 25 |
In the upcoming Olympic games in 2024, competition is going to be very tough. To be fair, we have only one genuine Olympic medal hope in Neeraj Chopra and his javelin. In order to go beyond 107 medals in Asia, we must learn to convert silver to gold, and fourth position to bronze. We must also get a toe hold in events like aquatics and gymnastics.
Men’s Hockey has played well. But with Australia, Germany, Netherlands and Belgium in contention, not to mention Spain, England and South Korea, field Hockey will be very tough discipline to win medal.
We may hope for medals in Shooting, Badminton, Boxing, and Wrestling. Athletics is going to be very tough with USA and Jamaica in the fray. Add to this, we dont have much foothold in Aquatic and Gymnastic events. I guess, we should set goals and work hard to fulfil them. Long hard work may bear fruit over a period of time.
Resource
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