Asian Games review: Rising up to the Asian Challenge

India ended its campaign at Incheon Asian Games 2014 with 11 gold, 10 silver and 36 bronze medals. Even though this medal tally is significantly less than what it was 4 years ago in Guangzhou (14 gold, 17 silver, 34 bronze), there is definitely a silver lining to India’s campaign provided by sports such as hockey, squash and archery.

The controversy in the boxing ring kept Indian contingent in the news for the wrong reason. L. Sarita Devi was undoubtedly correct in raising the concerns over the judgemental errors and favouritism in boxing, but her behaviour at the medal ceremony was questionable and not in accordance with the sporting spirit exemplified by the Asian Games.

Let us look at the performance given by the Indian athletes in Asian Games over the years (since 1998).

India’s performance over the years

It is clear that the performance given by Indian athletes is improving in each Aisad, but, there is no improvement in the the overall ranking of India in the medals tally. At the same time, a bit more analysis shows that there is significant improvement in a numbes of disciplines in which India earned its glod medals. In 1998, India won its gold medals (7) across only five different disciplines (athletics, boxing, kabaddi, hockey and billiards) which has improved to 9 (athletics, boxing, kabaddi, hockey, shooting, squash, tennis, archery and wrestling) in the recently concluded 17th Asian games. The lesser count of Indian medals in Incheon can also be atrributed to exclusion of disciplines like chess and cue sports from this edition.

The headline for Indian contingent in Korea was surely the gold medal earned by the field hockey team. This was the first time in 16 years (last being in 1998) where Indian team was able to taste the glory at asian level. The automatic 2016 Olympic berth was surely the cherry on the top. Unconventional games like squash, wushu, wailing and swimming also boosted the medals tally for India to everyone’s delight. Four medals each in squash and archery took everyone by surprise while the Indian dominance continued in both men’s and women’s kabaddi.

Discipline wise gold medals

Now, let us look at some sports where India could have done better. In badminton, the Indian contingent was expected to earn atleast one silver medal if not more, but the disappointing performance by Saina Nehwal and P. V. Sindhu in women’s singles made sure that India had to remain content with a lone bronze. Over to shooting range, Indian shooters were far off the mark. The shooters were able to produce only a single gold medal performance which was well below the expectations raised by the players after winning different stages of world cups around the year.

Boxing, which has earned as many as four gold medals since 1998 games, failed to improve much on that score. The star Indian performers, except the evergreen Mary Kom, failed to break the barrier of quarter-finals and had to settle for consoling bronze medals. The performance in athletics was no different either. Compared to five gold medals earned by India in last edition, the diminished kitty of two golds was not at all satisfactory and it contributed heavily in India’s overall decreased medal count.

To sum it up, Incheon 2014 was a mixed bag for India where, the traditional medal earners failed to make their mark but some of the non traditional sports made a significant impact. Future looks really promising with Rio olympics less than two years away and lots of Olympics berths on offer for all the sports disciplines over next few months. So, the race for Rio 2016 well and truly begins now. The game is on!