India's story at the Asian Games

Mary Kom

Three phases of the Asian Games

There have been three distinct phases in the Asian Games. From 1951 till 1978, Japan dominated the Asian Games and always finished top of the medals tally. The runners up were invariably the hosts, India in 1951, Philippines in 1954 and Indonesia in 1962. Japan had no serious challenger in the Asian Games.

This phase of Japanese domination slowly ceased once China was granted entry to the Asian Games in 1974. They made an immediate impact and finished second in the medals tally in both 1974 and 1978. Japan still dominated in both swimming and athletics and so finished way ahead of China in Tehran (1974) 76 gold, 50 silver and 51 bronze medals for a tally of 176 medals as compared to China’s 33 gold, 28 silver and 28 bronze medals for a total of 89 medals.

Japan’s domination continued in Bangkok 1978 but the gap narrowed as China finished with 151 medals overall just 27 behind Japan.

Dawn of a new era

The 9th Asian Games in Delhi heralded the start of a new era. For the first time The Land of the Rising Sun got eclipsed. Both Japan and China finished with a total of 153 medals. However China won 61 gold medals, four more than Japan and so topped the medals tally.

Four years later, Japan slipped to third in the medals tally in the 10th Asian Games in Seoul. South Korea came second. The hosts had 224 medals more than China but were second as they secured 93 Gold medals one less than China. Since then it has been one -way -traffic with China getting more and more dominant, always topping the medals table in every Asian Games. Japan has been slowly pushed to third spot.

The third phase started with the entry of the five Central Asian Republics, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan to the Olympic Council of Asia in the early 1990s. They first participated in the 1994 Asian Games in Hiroshima. Their entry had an immediate impact on India fortunes at these games.

Domination in boxing

For years India had dominated the heavyweight boxing category with Hawa Singh winning gold medals in both 1966 and 1970 and Kaur Singh in 1982. With the participation of the five Central Asian Republics the level of competition has increased a lot in sports like weightlifting, boxing, athletics and wrestling. So India’s advantage of having taller and stronger men in the heavier weight categories and in the throws in athletics gradually disappeared.

This was evident in the 2014 Incheon Asian Games also. In the super-heavyweight, plus 121 kg category of boxing, Satish Kumar of the 11 Kumaon Regiment got outclassed by the 6ft. 9ins tall Ivan Dychko of Kazakhstan, who is the reigning world champion. Kazakhstan a dominant force in amateur boxing, won six gold medals in men’s boxing in the recent 17th Asian Games.

Similarly in wrestling, Indian grapplers in the heavier weight categories, Satyavart Kadian (97 kg) and Krishna Kumar (120 kg) in freestyle and Hardeep Singh (98 kg) and Dharmendra Dalal (130 kg) in Greco-Roman got eclipsed by swifter and heavier opponents from the Central Asian Republics. Prior to the 1994 Asian Games, the grapplers and boxers in the heavier weight categories invariably returned with some medal as competition was less intense.

Indian performance at Incheon Asian Games

At the 2014 Incheon Asian Games India got 11 gold, 10 silver and 36 bronze medals for an overall tally of 57 medals. Thirty-two years ago, India with 57 medals from 18 different sports at the Delhi Asian Games finished fifth in the medals tally.

In 2014, India also bagged 57 medals, from 14 sports disciplines but finished eighth. This shows that the level of competition has increased drastically in the Asian Games.

In athletics India now faces a much tougher challenge than they did some two decades ago. It is not just the presence of the Central Asian Republics which makes the difference but also the new trend of poaching athletes from African nations. Oil rich countries like Bahrain, Qatar and UAE are using their wealth to get African born athletes to represent their adopted countries.

Countries importing athletes

Bahrain won nine gold medals in athletics in Incheon 2014, mainly due to their imported athletes. This is of course a new trend in world athletics with many European countries also doing the same. But the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) has set no proper guidelines about time constraints for switching nationalities and competing in the Asian Games.

For instance Oluwakemi Mujidat Adekoya of Nigeria won the women’s 400 metres gold medal just 18 days after she became eligible to run for Bahrain. She applied for the citizenship of Bahrain in 2013 and in less than a year became eligible to run for her adopted country.

India’s Rajiv Arokia a bronze medalist in the men’s 400 metres could have bagged a gold medal, if there had been no imported runners from other countries. Saudi Arabia’s Yousef Ahmed Masrahi and Bahrain’s Abbas Abubaker who clinched the gold and silver medals respectively in this race were both African imports. Despite these difficulties athletics provided India with the maximum number of medals, 13 in all, at the recent Asian Games.

It was satisfying that India retained their domination of women’s 4x400 metres women’s relay. Also 12 years after Neelam Jaswant Singh’s gold medal in the women’s discus throw in the 2002 Busan Asian Games; Seema Punia won a gold medal in the same event.

Seema’s grit and consistency is laudable. She missed the last two Asian Games and this was her last chance for a medal. On a wet and slippery surface she got her gold with a heave of 61.03 metres.

Depth in talent in India

In the new millennium, India has now won four successive gold medals in the women’s 4x400 metres, thereby proving the depth of talent that exists in the country. No other Asian country since Busan 2002 has produced a quartet of women quarter miles that are consistently good.

After the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games six of our top 400 metres runners were suspended for two years due to doping offences. It seemed the relay team was in shambles. But the girls showed great fortitude in their comeback and stormed to victory with a Games record timing of 3:28.68.

The quartet of Purva Pawar, Tintu Luka (an 800 metres runner introduced to this event in the 2013 Asian Grand Prix), Mandeep Kaur and M.R. Poovamma beat their closest rivals Japan by over five metres.

Surprise victories at Incheon

India’s biggest success stories at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games are the numerous medals won by lesser known athletes. Promising 21-year-old Khushbir Kaur of Khalsa College Amritsar became the first Indian woman to win a silver medal in the 20kms walk.

She developed her stamina by daily walking from her village to her college. The stipend provided by ONGC has helped her career as her father expired when she was just seven years old.

Other unknown success stories were in events in which India have never done well. Anu Rani, a 22-year-old from Meerut, got a bronze medal in the Javelin throw, Manju Bala a silver medal in hammer throw and Naveen Kumar bronze in the men’s 3,000 metres steeplechase.

Overall India won 13 medals in athletics, the maximum in any sport. This tally is one more than the 12 medals won by athletes in Guangzhou 2010. However four years ago, India had bagged five gold medals in athletics as compared to two now.

Indian athletics has established itself at the Asian level. It is now imperative that the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) identifies the talent that can be groomed for the sterner tests in the Olympics and World championships. Tintu Luka, Vikas Gowda, Seema Punia, Khushbir Kaur and the women’s 4x400 metres relay squad comes to mind.

Another brilliant performance was the gold medal in the team event of the Compound Archery event. India’s exuberant trio of Abhishek Verma, Rajat Chauhan and Sanjeev Kumar beat hosts and fancied South Korea 227—224 in the final. Sadly Compound Archery is not an Olympic sport. The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) should lobby hard to get this sport included in the Olympics as India stands more chance of winning a medal in Compound archery than Recurve archery.

Other remarkable gold medals were won by Yogeshwar Dutt in the men’s 65 kg freestyle wrestling, Mary Kom in the women’s 51 kg boxing, the men’s squash trio in the team event and the men’s hockey team winning after 16 years. Indian shooters won nine medals but only got a solitary gold of the 44 gold medals at stake.

They could have done much better but for the goof up by IOA officials of their accreditation. Consequently the shooters who were participating in the World Championships in Spain had to make an arduous five day journey to incheon, so they were not fresh before the competition started.

Medals won across various sports

Indian won medals in 13 of the 26 sports that they participated in at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games. Some of the teams did not win medals but performed well. The men’s volleyball squad which came fifth, the basketball team, some gymnasts and the equestrian squad all performed better than expectations.

In weightlifting and table tennis, Asian standards are world class so no medals were expected but some of our lifters performed below par. The men’s and women’s football team also gave mediocre displays and were knocked out in the first round. For the first time in the history of the Asian games India failed to score a goal in the men’s football competition losing 0-5 to UAE and 0-2 to Jordan.

India did not reach the projected range (by Sports Authority of India) of 70-75 medals but their tally of 57 medals is the second highest ever. The maximum haul of medals by India in an Asian Games is 65 in Guangzhou 2010.