Asian Games: A brief flashback of India's performance

Anju Bobby George

With the 17th Asian Games, officially known as the XVII Asiad, is scheduled to take place in Incheon, South Korea from 19th September to 4th October 2014, let us look back to India's performance in the past events.

India is a member of the South Asian Zone of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), and has participated in the Asian Games since their inception in 1951. The Indian Olympic Association, established in 1927, and recognised in the same year by the International Olympic Committee, is the National Olympic Committee for India.

India was one of the first five founding members of the Asian Games Federation on 13th February 1949, in New Delhi. The organisation was disbanded on 26th November 1981 and replaced by the Olympic Council of Asia.

India is one of the only seven countries that have competed in all the editions of the Asian Games. The other six are Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Singapore and Thailand. India has won at least one gold medal at every Asian Games, and ranked within the top 10 nations of the medals table except in the 1990 Asian Games.

New Delhi, has hosted the Asian Games on two occasions: the inaugural 1951 Asian Games and the 1982 Asian Games.

If we go through the performances of India then we will see that in almost every Asian Games, athletics have brought the maximum gold medals for India. From 1951 to 2010 Asian Games, India has won 128 medals, out of which 70 were won in athletics.

1951 Asian Games:

In the inaugural Asian Games in 1951 at Delhi, India finished second behind Japan. In this edition the significant performance was shown by Sachin Nag, who won gold medal in swimming. India won 10 gold medals in athletics, followed by two in diving and one each in football, swimming and waterpolo.

1954 to 1970 - domination of athletics

In the second Asian Games at Manila, India won four gold medals and all the medals were won by athletics. In the third Asian Games at Tokyo, India finished seventh in medals table with five gold medals and again all the gold medals came from athletics. In Jakarta, 1962, India bagged 10 gold medals and finished third in medals table. It was again the dominance of athletics in which India won five gold medals.

The fifth Asian Games, held in the Bangkok, Thailand from 9th to 20th December, 1966. Indian athletes won total 21 medals with seven gold and ranked fifth in a medals table. India won five gold in athletics, one each in boxing and hockey.

In the sixth Asian Games at Bangkok in 1970, India won 25 medals including 6 gold medals, out of which four came from athletics and one each from boxing and wrestling. The significant thing was that Kamaljeet Sandhu brought the first gold medal for India in women’s athletics.

Following are the gold medal winners for India in Asian Games from 1951 to 1970

Year	Athlete	Sport	Event
1951	Lavy Pinto	Athletics	Men's 100 m
1951	Lavy Pinto	Athletics	Men's 200 m
1951	Ranjit Singh	Athletics	Men's 800 m
1951	Nikka Singh	Athletics	Men's 1500 m
1951	A. S. Bakshi	Athletics	Men's 4×400 m relay
1951	Govind Singh
1951	Balwant Singh
1951	Chota Singh	Athletics	Men's Marathon
1951	Mahabir Prasad	Athletics	Men's 10000 m walk
1951	Bakhtawar Singh	Athletics	Men's 50 km walk
1951	Madan Lal	Athletics	Men's Shot put
1951	Makhan Singh	Athletics	Men's Discus throw
1951	K. P. Thakkar	Diving	Men's 3 m springboard
1951	K. P. Thakkar	Diving	Men's 10 m platform
1951	India	Football	Men's Team
1951	Sachin Nag	Swimming	Men's 100 m freestyle
1951	India	Water Polo	Men's Team
1954	Sarwan Singh	Athletics	Men's 110 m Hurdles
1954	Ajit Singh	Athletics	High Jump (Men)
1954	Parduman Singh Brar	Athletics	Shot Put (Men)
1954	Parduman Singh Brar	Athletics	Discus throw (Men)
1958	Milkha Singh	Athletics	200 m
1958	Milkha Singh	Athletics	400 m
1958	Mohinder Singh	Athletics	Tripe jump
1958	Parduman Singh	Athletics	Shot put
1958	Balkar Singh	Athletics	Discus throw
1962	Milkha Singh	Athletics	Men' 400 m
1962	Mohinder Singh	Athletics	Men's 1500 m
1962	Tarlok Singh	Athletics	Men's 10000m
1962	Daljit Singh	Athletics	Men's 4×400 m relay
	Jagdish Singh
	Makhan Singh
	Milkha Singh
1962	Gurbachan Singh Randhawa	Athletics	Decathlon (Men)
1966	Ajmer Singh	Athletics	400m
1966	Bhogeswar Barua	Athletics	800m
1966	Bhim Singh	Athletics	High Jump (Men)
1966	Joginder Singh	Athletics	Shot Put (Men)
1966	Praveen Kumar	Athletics	Discus throw (Men)
1966	India	Hockey	Men's Team
1966	Hawa Singh	Boxing	Heavyweight (81 KG+)
1970	Mohinder Singh Gill	Athletics	Tripe jump
1970	Joginder Singh	Athletics	Shot Put (Men)
1970	Praveen Kumar	Athletics	Discus throw (Men)
1970	Kamaljeet Sandhu	Athletics	400m (Women)
1970	Hari Singh	Boxing	Heavyweight (81 KG+)
1970	Chandgi Ram	Wrestling	100 KG

In 1974 Asian Games at Tehran, India won 28 medals including four gold medals and finished seventh in medals table. Again in 1978 at Bangkok, India won 28 medals including 11 gold medals and finished sixth in the medals table.

In the year 1982, The Asian game was back to India as New Delhi hosted the mega event. In this edition, India won 13 gold medals, 19 silver medals and 25 bronze medals with a total of 57 over-all medals and finished fifth in the medals table.

The winners of 1982 Gold Medals for India are as follows

Athlete	Sport	Event
India	Hockey	Women's
Kaur Singh	Boxing	Heavyweight
Satpal Singh	Wrestling	Heavyweight
Bunny Laxman Singh	Golf	Men’s
Chand Ram	Athletics	Men’s 20km walk
MD Valsamma	Athletics	Women’s 400m hurdles
India	Golf	Men's Golf Team
Charles Borromeo	Athletics	800 metres
Tarapore Karanja	Sailing	Enterprise class
Raghubir Singh	Equestrian	Men’s
Rupi Brar	Equestrian	Tent Pegging
India	Equestrian	Men’s team

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In the 1986 Asian Games held in Seoul, India finished 5th with 5 gold medals, 9 silver medals and 23 bronze medals with a total of 37 medals.

• 1990 Asian Games - a disappointment

However, 1990 Asian Games has been the worst ever games for India as per performances. India won only one gold medal in kabaddi (first time introduced at Asian Games), and for the first time ranked outside top 10 in the medals table. India finished 12th with one gold, eight silver and 14 bronze medals.

In 1994 Hiroshima Asian Games, India won four gold medals, three silver medals and 15 bronze medals with a total of 22 medals and finished eighth in the medals table.

In 1998 Asian Games at Bangkok, India won seven gold medals, 11 silver medals and 17 bronze medals and finished ninth in the medals table.

Following are the gold medalists of 1998 Asian Games for India

Athlete	Games	Category
Jyotirmoy Sikdhar	Athletics (1500m)	women
Jyotirmoy Sikdhar	Athletics (800m)	Women
Geet Sethi and Ashok Shandilya	Billiards (Doubles)	Men
Ashok Shandilya	Billiards (Sinlges)	Men
Ngangim Dingko Singh	Boxing (54 kg)	Men
Hockey team	Hockey	Men
Kabaddi team	Kabaddi	Men

In 2002 Busan Asian Games, India won 10 gold medals, 12 silvers and 13 bronze medals, thus finishing eigth in medals table. In this edition, the gold medal domination was from athletics as India grabbed six golds. The consistent performance in kabaddi was also shown as India won their 4th gold medal.

Following are the gold medal winners at Busan Asian Games:

Athlete	Sport	Event
India	Kabaddi	Men's Kabaddi
Shiv Kapur	Golf	Men's individual
Bahadur Singh Sagoo	Athletics	Shot put
Neelam Jaswant Singh	Athletics	Discuss throw
Anju Bobby George	Athletics	Long jump
Jincy Philip, Manjeet Kaur, Soma Biswas, K. M. Beenamol	Athletics	Men's 4x400 m Relay
Saraswati Saha	Athletics	200 metres
K. Mathews Beenamol	Athletics	800 metres
Leander paes, Mahesh bhupati	Teniis	Men’s doubles
Yasin marchent, Rafat habib	Billiards	Doubles

In the year 2006 Asian Games, we saw a major transform in India’s performance. Till 2002 India’s majority of Gold came from Athletics, but in 2006 we saw that shooting brought the maximum gold, i.e, three, while athletics grabbed only one gold medal.

Following are the gold medal winners in Busan Asian Games:

Athlete	Sport	Event
Pankaj Advani	Cue Sports	Men's English Billiards Singles
Humpy Koneru	Chess	Women's Rapid
Jaspal Rana	Shooting	Men's 25 m Centre Fire Pistol, Men's 25 m Standard Pistol
Leander Paes & Mahesh Bhupathi	Tennis	Men’s doubles
Leander Paes & Sania Mirza	Tennis	Mixed doubles
Geetha Sati Kaur Manjeet Kulathummuriyil Chitra Paramanik Pinki	Athletics	Women's 4x400 m Relay
India	Kabaddi	Men’s kabaddi
Jung Samresh Kumar Vijay Rana Jaspal	Shooting	Men's 25 m Centre Fire Pistol Team
Koneru Humpy Krishnan Sasikiran Pentyala Harikrishna	Chess	Mixed Team's Classical

2010 Asian Games – the best for India

In the 2010 Asian Games at Guangzhou, India put up its best ever performance at Asian Games. India finished with 64 medals including 14 gold, which is India's second best performance ever since inception of Asian Games in 1951. These Games also witnessed first ever medals in gymnastics and roller sports.

Athlete	Sport	Event
Pankaj Advani	Cue Sports	Men's English Billiards Singles
Bajrang Lal Takhar	Rowing	Men's Single Sculls
Ronjan Sodhi	Shooting	Men's Double Trap
Preeja Sreedharan	Athletics	Women's 10,000m
Sudha Singh	Athletics	Women's 3000m Steeplechase
Somdev Devvarman	Tennis	Men's Doubles
Sanam Singh
Somdev Devvarman	Tennis	Men's Singles
Ashwini Chidananda Akkunji	Athletics	Women's 400m Hurdles
Joseph Abraham	Athletics	Men's 400m Hurdles
Vikas Krishan Yadav	Boxing	Men's 60kg
India	Kabaddi	Women
India	Kabaddi	Men
Manjeet Kaur	Athletics	Women's 4 x 400m Relay
Ashwini Chidananda Akkunji
Sini Jose
Mandeep Kaur
Vijender Singh	Boxing	Boxing 75 kg

Following are India’s Medal Summary and Ranking in Asian Games

Asian Games
Year	City	Country	Rank	G	S	B	Total
1951	New Delhi	India	2	15	16	20	51
1954	Manila	Philippines	5	4	4	5	13
1958	Tokyo	Japan	7	5	4	4	13
1962	Jakarta	Indonesia	3	12	13	27	52
1966	Bangkok	Thailand	5	7	4	11	22
1970	Bangkok	Thailand	5	6	9	10	25
1974	Tehran	Iran	7	4	12	12	28
1978	Bangkok	Thailand	6	11	11	6	28
1982	New Delhi	India	5	13	19	25	57
1986	Seoul	South Korea	5	5	9	23	37
1990	Beijing	China	12	1	8	14	23
1994	Hiroshima	Japan	8	4	3	15	22
1998	Bangkok	Thailand	9	7	11	17	35
2002	Busan	South Korea	8	10	12	13	35
2006	Doha	Qatar	8	10	17	26	53
2010	Guangzhou	China	6	14	17	34	65

Following are the Medal Details for India by Sports

Sport	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
Athletics	70	73	76	219
Wrestling	8	13	30	51
Boxing	7	15	26	48
Tennis	7	5	12	24
Kabaddi	7	0	0	7
Cue Sports	5	4	6	15
Shooting	4	15	22	41
Field hockey	3	10	4	17
Golf	3	2	0	5
Equestrian	3	1	6	10
Diving	2	1	2	5
Chess	2	0	2	4
Football	2	0	1	3
Rowing	1	7	8	16
Swimming	1	1	5	7
Water polo	1	1	1	3
Weightlifting	0	5	10	15
Sailing	0	4	8	12
Archery	0	1	2	3
Cycling	0	1	2	3
Volleyball	0	1	2	3
Wushu	0	1	2	3
Badminton	0	0	7	7
Judo	0	0	5	5
Squash	0	0	4	4
Canoeing	0	0	1	1
Gymnastics	0	0	1	1
Taekwondo	0	0	1	1