Asian Games 2010 Day 15: Late charge helps India record its best-ever medal haul as games end


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

Saturday, 27 November 2010: The super charge led by athletes, boxers and tennis players in the last seven days of the Asian Games not only provided the impetus to the floundering Indian campaign but also scripted a memorable climax as the country recorded its best ever performance at the sporting event. India ended its campaign in the sporting spectacle in the sixth position with 14 gold, 17 silver and 33 bronze medals. The total medal haul of 64 here is also the highest for India in Asiad history as it bettered the 1982 haul in Delhi of 57 comprising 13-19-25.

 

Hosts China are close to 200 gold medals (199-119-98) also their best-ever medal haul that even exceeded what they did in 1990 when they grabbed 183-107-51 for a total tally of 341. The Chinese dragon consumed all in its wake and though Korea and Japan, to a much smaller extent, tried to slow down the progress of the juggernaut, they could not arrest the hosts’ relentless march. The Asian Games, the second largest after the Olympics, showed starkly that the majority of the Indian contingent had no credentials to compete at this level.

 

A little-known athlete from the backyards of south India, Ashwini Chidananda, became the new golden girl of Indian athletics by clinching a double gold in women’s 400m hurdles and 4x400m relay to help the country’s track and field campaign end with a bang last evening. Karnataka runner Ashwini’s heroics were the icing on the cake after experienced distance runners Preeja Sreedharan and Sudha Singh had provided the early spark with a double gold strike in women’s 10,000m and 3,000m steeplechase on the opening day of athletics.

 

Kerala athlete Joseph Abraham took the corresponding men’s low hurdles gold, the first for India in track events for men. The athletes bagged two silver and four bronze medals too to complement the five-gold haul. Indian boxing’s poster boy Vijender Singh provided the spark to India’s campaign. Teen sensation Vikas Kishan in the 60kg class simply overwhelmed his opponent in the final to create the biggest upset of the last day’s action yesterday at the Foshan Gymnasium and made up for his lackluster display at the CWG.

 

 

The shooters and wrestlers, who were the toast of the nation at the CWG, put up a flop show and had the thunder stolen from them by the athletes, boxers, India’s number one tennis player Somdev Devvarman and also the kabaddi men and women teams. The other creditable stories came from the archery range, where Tarundeep Rai bagged India’s first ever individual medal - a silver, rower Takhar who won India’s first ever gold in the discipline and that too with borrowed boats.

 

The success stories of gymnast Ashish Kumar, who won the floor exercise bronze for the first-ever medal in the sport, and swimmer Virdhwal Khade were also memorable. Young Khade provided India with its first medal from the pool since 1986 Seoul Games. He bagged the men’s 50m butterfly bronze. Khazan Singh Tokas was the last medalist in swimming for India, winning silver in 200m fly in the Korean capital. India also won four bronze medals from little followed and practice games of wushu, the Chinese martial art, and roller skating (2) that was introduced here as a medal sport.

 

Apart from the super flop show by freestyle wrestlers, another major flunk show was by the men’s hockey team which aimed for the gold medal and ended up with a bronze. Adding to the list of failures was ace woman shuttler Saina Nehwal, double-gold winner in CWG, who came a cropper as the second seed in the singles event. Out of 14 gold won by India, athletes accounted for the highest, five, followed by boxers (2), tennis (2) and men and women kabaddi players (2). The other titles were lifted by Pankaj Advani (billiards), the first for the country here, shotgun ace Ronjan Sodhi and rower Bajrang Lal Takhar.

 

Just prior to the athletes and boxers’entry, it was left to Tripura-born tennis player Somdev to sustain the Indian gold medal hunt and he did it showing stupendous stamina, determination and killer instinct to win the men’s singles and doubles gold medals. He played 15 matches in one week, which is no mean achievement. In fact tennis provided the country with two gold, one silver medal (mixed doubles) and two bronze (Sania Mirza in women’s singles and the men’s team) medals.

 

The shooters – including India’s lone individual Olympic gold medal winner Abhinav Bindra, CWG four-gold hero Gagan Narang and women’s world 50m rifle prone champion Tejaswini Sawant – put up a poor show. Narang secured two silver medals in the 10m air rifle event but flunked in windy conditions in the 50m range, Bindra exited without an individual medal to show for and Tejeaswini brought up the rear in her rifle competitions. The face-saving show came late, and on the shot gun range from world record holder Sodhi in his pet double trap.

 

Thanks to an unprecedented show with two bronze by Greco-Roman grapplers Ravinder Singh and Sunilkumar Rana, the medal tally from the mat had something to shown for. The men’s kabaddi team clinched its sixth straight gold but had to subdue a fighting Iran after the women clinched the maiden title beating Thailand comfortably. While former two-time world professional champion Pankaj Advani expectedly retained his gold medal which was the first and only one for India till shooter Sodhi added to the list by winning the men’s double trap title, the rowing gold by Takhar was a surprise one.

 

Medals Tally

 

 

Country

G

S

B

Total

China

199

119

98

416

South Korea

76

65

91

232

Japan

48

74

94

216

Iran

20

14

25

59

Kazakhstan

18

23

38

79

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

 

 

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