Analysis of Indian Performance at 18th Asian Games Jakarta-Palembang 2018- hits, misses & hopes!

When Asian games started, I was interested in Indian performances on the following parameters:

-India was participating with the largest ever contingent. Can we improve best ever Medal Tally of 65 medals (with 14 Gold achieved at #Guangzhou in 2010)?

- Can India have TOP 5 finish? (China, Korea, Japan are almost certain to be at 1-2-3 and with former Soviet Nations, Iran, host Indonesia in the fray it would have been tough competition)

- How many athletes from the Indian athletics team will have world-class performances. Which will give us hopes for 2020 Tokyo Olympic medals?

As games are coming to end, here is the outcome of the points I was interested in

- India indeed got the best ever results in terms of a number of medals and number of Gold Medals #15 Gold, 24 Silver & 30 Bronze). This is despite India not getting any of the four Gold Medals in Kabbadi & Hockey

- India couldn't achieve top 5 Finish, it looks difficult in near terms for 2 reasons - there are only 2 slots open (giving Top 3 to China, Japan & Korea), with former Soviet Union Countries participating in Asian Games (Uzbekistan, Kazakisthan etc), they are not only strong Top 5 candidates but have taken away some of the medals where Indians traditionally did well. In addition to this, thanks to many local games introduced, Host Country (Indonesia in this case) moved up to the undisputed 4th position. Then we have India, Iran, Taipei to compete with all these nations.

- As I was hoping there were world-class performances which gives hope for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic - those are Neeraj Chopra, Sindhu & Saina, Shooters (especially the way young Shooters performed,) Vinesh Phogat & Bajarang, Amit in boxing (winning against Olympic Gold Medalist), and first ever medals in Table Tennis.

There are many positives in addition to the above-mentioned performances though they may not fetch Olympics in near term

- Gold Medal in Rowing All Gold medals in Athletics

- Dutee Chand's 2 Silver medals

- Women Squash team's Semi-final win against Malasia (which included Nikol David)

- Doubles Gold in Tennis and Ankita Raina's bronze

- Medals in Kurash, Wishu, Sepaktakraw, Equestrian

Disappointments:

- Both Kabbadi teams (I somehow feel this is a good development for the game though)

- Badminton Mens team

-Hockey Mens team,

- Sushil Kumar in Wrestling,

- Women Boxing players

- Dipa Karmakar failed after raising so many hopes in last Olympics

- Archery Recurve teams

- Weightlifters are not even competing at Asian level now

- Virdhawal Khade was unlucky to miss out on the medal but still, India is not making any impression in swimming

So overall good performance- with lots of hopes for future and wake up calls in few games