On the back of their most successful Asian Games campaign at Jakarta five years back, the Indian contingent, with over 600 athletes in the fray, is hoping to overhaul that 70-medal tally at Hangzhou.
The other figure to watch out for will be 16 golds, which India won at Jakarta 2018 and is so far their best performance at the Asian Games.
रेलवे सुरक्षा बल का स्थापना दिवस: RPF जवानों ने परेड निकाली और मलखंब का प्रदर्शन किया
In this piece, we track all of India’s medallists at the multi-sport event.
You can read all of our top stories by clicking on this link. You can also follow our liveblog of Day 1 of the Asian Games here. You can also read dispatches from Mihir Vasavda, our man on the ground in Hangzhou, by clicking here.
Day 1: September 24
SILVER: Rowing, Lightweight Men’s Double Sculls: Arvind Singh and Arjun Lal Jat kickstarted proceedings in rowing with a second-placed finish behind China. It was a solid outing from the army duo. Later, Arjun revealed that Arvind has actually been facing back issues in the lead-up to the event and that they were delighted to get this medal to set the ball roling for India.
SILVER: Shooting, 10m Air Rifle Team Women: Ramita, Mehuli Ghosh and Ashi Chouksey kicked things off in shooting for India. China were expected to be the closest competitors for India here and it turned out to be so. Three Chinese shooters were in top eight of the qualification round while Ramita and Mehuli entered the final.
ing, Men’s Eight: In what was an otherwise dominant day for China, this was one of the races where they were given a good fight. India clocked 5:43.01 and parried away Indonesia to bronze. The team comprised Neeraj, Naresh Kalwaniya, Neetish Kumar, Charanjeet Singh, Jaswinder Singh, Bheem Singh, Punit Kumar, Ashish and Dhananjay Uttam Pande. Pande was the oldest at 32, while Neeraj and Naresh were youngest at 24 years. It was India’s second silver behind China after lightweight doubles sculls.
BRONZE: Rowing, Men’s Pair: Babu Lal Yadav and Lekh Ram finished third in the Men’s Pair event in rowing. Rajasthan combine Babu Lal Yadav, who’s 22, and Lekh Ram, 27, finished the Men’s coxless pair at 6:50.41, 6.21 seconds behind gold medallist Hong Kong, China’s 6:44.20.
BRONZE: Shooting, 10m Air Rifle Team: Ramita Jindal backed up her team event silver medal with a solid showing in the individual final. The Indian finished behind two Chinese shooters. It was a tight contest with her compatriot Mehuli Ghosh, the latter finishing fourth.