Asian Games 2010 Day 14: India record their best-ever medal haul in Asian Games

By Victor D’Souza, Doha
From various sources
Bellevision Media Network

Friday, 26 November 2010: India created history by recording their best-ever performance in Asian Games with 64 medals, including a record 14 golds, with star boxer Vijender Singh providing the icing on the cake by bringing the last yellow metal on the penultimate day here on Friday. The men’s and women’s kabaddi teams expectedly maintained their supremacy by clinching the gold before the women’s 4x400m quartet and Vijender (75kg) bagged a yellow metal each on the most productive day for India in the mega-event.

 

With the addition of 11 more medals on Friday, India’s tally climbed to a record 14 gold, 17 silver and 33 bronze (total 64), the biggest ever haul in the Asian Games so far, to jump to the sixth place. China leads the medals table with 197 gold, 117 silver and 98 bronze (total 412), followed by South Korea (74-63-91) and Japan (47-73-94) at second and third respectively. India’s best medal haul till date was recorded in the 1982 Games in Delhi when they had won 13 gold, 19 silver and 25 bronze for an overall tally of 57. India had finished 10 in the last edition of the Games in Doha with a tally of 10-17-26.

 

The women’s 4x400m relay team also lived up to the expectations as they defended the gold they won in the 2006 Doha Asian Games. Long distance runners Preeja Sreedharan, who had earlier won a gold in women’s 10,000m race, and Kavita Raut had their moment of glory by winning the silver and bronze medals respectively in the women’s 5000m event. Rollersports fetched India a couple of unexpected bronze medals with Anup Kumar Yama bagging one in men’s single free skating before combining with Avani Panchal to finish third in the pairs skating event. The Indian men’s chess team also contributed a bronze.

 

The athletics team also ended their campaign with a bagful of medals with the women’s 4x400m relay quartet winning the gold to bring down the curtains with a bang. India emerged from the track and field events with five gold, two silver and four bronze medals, one of their best efforts in Asian Games history. Having started their campaign with a golden double in the women’s 10,000m and 3,000m steeplechase through Preeja Sreedharan and Sudha Singh on the first day, the 4x400m relay team of Manjeet Kaur, Sini Jose, AC Ashwini and Mandeep Kaur ended the campaign by clinching gold in 3 minutes 29.02secs. Kazakhstan took the silver in 3:30.03 while China claimed the bronze in 3:30.89.

 

 

 

It was the fifth gold from the athletics arena for India following gold medals by Ashwini in the 400m hurdles and by Joseph Abraham in the corresponding men’s event and the opening day’s heroics by Preeja and Sudha. Preeja, however, could only get a silver in the women’s 5000m despite making a great effort to catch Bahrain’s eventual gold winner Mimi Belete while compatriot Kavita Raut got the bronze as India won one gold, a silver and a bronze.

 

India have now completed their engagements in the Games and their final standing will depend after the completion of the six events -- men’s and women’s marathon, men’s and women’s doubles sepaktakraw finals and women’s volleyball final on Saturday. While the kabaddi teams did not sweat much to keep their reputation intact in rather lopsided finals, Vijender made amends for his bronze-finish in Commonwealth Games with a gold here while compatriots Santosh Kumar (64) and Manpreet Singh (91kg) settled for a silver each.

 

Despite suffering an elbow injury, Indian woman wrestler Suman Kundu reached the semifinals of the 63kg freestyle wrestling but failed a get a bronze. The injury hampered her from giving her best in the semifinal bout and she lost 0-3 to Mongolia’s Nasanbyrmaa Ochirbat. She was overwhelmed 0-5 by China’s Chen Meng in the bronze-medal play-off. The Indian men’s 4x100m relay squad narrowly missed the bronze medal after a great anchor leg by Mohamed Abdul Najeeb who started in fifth position when the baton was passed to him by third runner Shameer Naseem Mon.

 

Two bronze medals came from rollersports with Anup Kumar Yama bagging one in men’s single free skating before combining with Avani Panchal to finish third in the pairs skating event. Anup totalled 244.2 in his singles routine for which he fetched 123.6 on technical merit and 120.6 for artistic impression. In the pairs event, Anup and Avani combined for a score of 222 which included 112.5 points on technical merit and 109.5 for artistic impression. The Indian men’s chess team of P Harikrishna, Sasikiran Krishnan, Surya Shekar Ganguly and B Adhiban contributed a bronze with a 3.0-0.5 victory over Iran the ninth and final round.

 

Medals Tally

 

 

Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
China	197	117	98	412
South Korea	74	63	91	228
Japan	47	73	94	214
Iran	20	14	25	59
Kazakhstan	18	23	37	78
India	14	17	33	64
Chinese Taipei	13	16	38	67
Uzbekistan	11	22	23	56
Thailand	11	9	32	52
Malaysia	9	18	14	41