India brought home a total of 69 medals - 15 gold, 24 silver and 30 bronze - from the Asian Games 2018 in Indonesia to surpass the medal count from 2010 Games in Guangzhou, China. This is also India's best ever overall medal tally, equaling country's joint-best effort at the Asian Games since the inaugural edition in 1951. The total of 24 silver medals is also the highest ever in Asiad history for India.
But India's performance was below par compared with the performance of China, Japan, S Korea, Indonesia etc. With its vast population, India's performance is pathetic. In China sports is a state-funded activity and sportsmen have nothing to worry about as the country will take care of all your needs. In South Korea, Japan and other countries, corporate houses and coming up to support sports in a big way. In India, except in some states like Haryana, other states or corporate houses are lagging behind in supporting budding sportsmen. You need state or corporate support to achieve your potential. The treatment the yesteryear sportsmen in their old age is also a dampener for the budding stars. The officials running the sports organisations are more interested keeping their positions than in the welfare of the youngsters under your care. If India wanted to perform better in sporting events, the states and corporate houses have to come forward to support the deserving young sportsmen.
Here is how India fared in key sporting events:
Athletics
Medals: 17 (7 gold, 10 silver and 2 medals) - Athletics saw most medals with seven gold medals coming from track and field. The results turned out to be better than how India fared at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games where they picked 13 medals in total. Neeraj Chopra and Swapna Barman won gold medals in the javelin throw and heptathlon respectively. India continued their dominance in women's team relay, bagging gold. Jinson Johnson's gold was first 1500m medal in 20 years, while Manjit Singh's 800m gold was possible after 32 years and Arpinder Singh's triple jump gold came after 48 years. .
Archery
Medals: 2 (2 silver medals) - India's compound archery team missed out on gold by a whisker. The India Men's team comprising of Rajat Chauhan, Aman Saini and Abhishek Verma, failed to grab the yellow metal after a rare stroke of bad luck.
Badminton
Medals: 2 (1 silver and 1 bronze medals) - With PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal bagging a medal each in the individual event. It is for the first time in Asiad history that female shuttlers won medals in the individual event at the Asian games for India.
Boxing
Medals: 2 (1 gold, and 1 bronze medals) - The expectations were high from the Indian boxers as they claimed nine medals at the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast earlier this year. But they could only win two medals, with Amit Panghal bagging gold on the final day.
Shooting
Medals: 10 (2 gold, 4 silver and 3 bronze medals) - Indian shooters delivered the goods at the Asian Games with a total of 10 medals. Teenagers Saurabh Chaudhary and Shardul Vihan made headlines after excellent performances. Rahi Sarnobat secured the second gold medal for India in the women's 25m pistol event. Sanjeev Rajput won a silver in 50m rifle 3 positions men, while Heena Sidhu secured bronze in 10m air pistol event.
Hockey
Medals: 2 (1 silver and 1 bronze medals) - Both, the men's and the women's team could have wrapped the gold medal at the Asian Games. Men's team was considered strong favourites to win gold, but failed to deliver at the crunch as they lost against Malaysia. They finally won the bronze by beating Pakistan. The women's team lost to Japan to claim silver.
Kabaddi
Medals: 2 (1 silver and 1 bronze medals) - India failed to win gold in a sport they have dominated since it was introduced for the first time in the tournament in 1990. For the first time, India men's team had not won the gold medal in Kabaddi at the Asian Games. To add to the disappointment, India women's team also failed to grab the gold after losing 27-24 against Iran.
Rowing
Medals: 3 (1 gold, and 2 bronze medals) - The rowers fought back on the final day to secure a gold and two bronze medals after Dattu Bhokanal, who was expected to win a medal in men's singles sculls had a horrible final, in which he finished in the last position.
Squash
Medals: 5 (1 silver and 4 bronze medals) - In the women's team event, Joshna Chinappa, Dipika Pallikal, Sunanya Kuruvilla and Tanvi Khanna won the silver medal. Saurav Ghoshal came home with a bronze in the men's singles department. In the men's team event, Saurav Ghosal, Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu, Ramit Tandon and Mahesh Mangaonkar clinched bronze. Joshna and Dipika won bronze in the women's singles section.
Table tennis
Medals: 2 (2 bronze medals) - India secured two medals with Sharath Kamal, G Sathiyan along with Manav Vikash, Anthony Arputharaj and Harmeet Desai winning the bronze medal in men’s Team event. Kamal combined with Manika Batra to win the bronze in mixed doubles.
Tennis
Medals: 3 (1 gold, 2 bronze medals) - Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan won the men's doubles gold, while Prajnesh Gunneswaran and Ankita Raina won bronze medal in the men's and women's singles event.
Wrestling
Medals: 3 (2 gold, and 1 bronze medals) - Bajrang Punia won gold in 65 kg freestyle and Vinesh Phogat clinched gold in the women's freestyle 50kg category. Phogat outplayed Japan's Yuki Irie to take a 6-2 win and become the first Indian female wrestler to win an Asiad gold. Divya Kakran also won the bronze medal in freestyle 68 kg wrestling for India.
Bridge
Medals: 3 (1 gold, and 2 bronze medals) - Pranab Bardhan and Shibhnath Sarkar took India's gold medal count to 15.
Equestrian
Medals: 2 (2 silver medals) - Fouaad Mirza ended India's 36 years of wait to win an individual medal in the equestrian event since 1982. He won the silver medal in individual jumping with a score of 26.40. The Indian team comprising of Rakesh Kumar, Ashish Malik, and Jitender Singh, apart from Mirza, also claimed the silver with a score of 121.30 in the team event.
Martial Arts (Kurash, Wushu)
Medals: 6 (1 silver and 5 bronze medals) - India picked up six medals with one silver and bronze coming in Kurash while four bronze medals arrived in wushu. Pincky Balhara and Malaprabha Jadhav won silver and bronze respectively in Kurash women's 52kg event. In wushu, Roshibina Naorem won bronze in women's Sanda 60kg; men's trio of Santhosh Kumar, Surya Bhanu Pratap Singh, Narender Grewal won in men's Sanda 56kg, 60kg and 65kg categories respectively.
