Asian Games 2023: India's Quest for Gold in the Sporting Extravaganza

The 19th Asian Games, which were postponed last year due to the COVID-19 outbreak, are now set to  take place in Hangzhou, China, from September 28 to October 3. The game will feature a total of 40 sports. The host nation will begin the competition as the all-time leading medalist with 3187 Asian Games medals, including 1473 gold.

This year, 45 countries from the Asian continent are participating in this once in a 4-year sports mahakumbh. With the competition growing tough among the athletes, it would be interesting to see which nation bags the maximum gold this time. Indian with a strong delegation of 655 athletes will be contesting against the best teams of Asia in various sports. We hope our team to better its medal tally from the previous editions of the Asian games.

Previous Performances

While China remained at the top of the medal tally in the Asian Games 2019 held in Indonesia with a mammoth 132 gold, Japan was a distant second with 75 gold and South Korea came third with 49 Gold. The promising performances from Indian athletes helped them bag the 8^th spot overall with 16 Gold. However, we would expect even better performance from our champions this year in the wake of their stellar performances in the 2022 Birmingham Common Wealth Games where they bagged 22 Gold, 16 Silver, and 23 Bronze to acquire the fourth spot with 61 medals overall.
 

Prominent Hopes

All eyes will be on the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Gold Medallist Neeraj Chopra to recreate the magic with his magical javelin throw. In China, the nation will expect him to defend the Gold that he won in Jakarta 2018 Asian Games.

Other prominent prospects from team India to look for in this upcoming edition of the Asian Games include:

PV Sindhu - Women's singles Badminton

The silver and bronze winner in two consecutive Olympics and a Gold medallist at Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, PV Sindhu is a big sporting icon in India. It would be great to see her battling out in the court with her contemporaries. We wish her all the best for many more glittering gold medals in this and the upcoming sporting events.

Nikhat Zareen (Boxing - Women’s 50kg)

The current Commonwealth and world champion in women’s 50kg category boxing. She has got that spirit to fight tooth and nail to secure a medal

Indian men’s hockey team

Will play to transform the 2018 Asian Games Bronze to Gold, and get a direct entry to Paris Olympics. We wish them the best of luck.
 

Rohan Bopanna (men’s doubles Tennis)

At 43, he is having a dream run of his career with Indian Wells and ATP tour titles earlier in 2023. He was also the semi-finalist at Wimbledon and runner-up at the US Open in the men’s doubles category. The name of his partner in the Asian Games 2023 is however yet to be disclosed.

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty (Badminton - Men’s Doubles)

Of course, both these stalwarts are the face of Indian badminton in the men’s doubles category now for many years. The pair is currently world No. 3. What more! They are the winner of the 2022 Indian Open, a Gold medal at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games 2022, and a bronze medal at the World Championships. All eyes will be on them.
 

Mirabai Chanu (Weightlifting - women’s 49kg)

This promising athlete has become immensely popular in India over the past few years owing to her Silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics. Her other major achievements include the World Championship title in 2017, two Gold medals, and one silver medal at the Common Wealth Games.
 

Muhammed Anas Yahiya - 4x400m mixed relay, men’s 400m, men’s 4x400m relay

The national record holder in 400m got inspired to take up athletics after witnessing the unsurpassed performance of the legendary Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt in the 2008 Olympics. He has bagged medals at the Asian Championships and the Asian Games. He also represented India at Tokyo 2020 in the 4x400m men’s and mixed relays. After the all-time great Milkha Singh and Km Binu, he is only the third from India to participate in the quarter-miler event of the Olympics.

Indian men’s and women’s cricket teams

Team India needs no introduction when it comes to Men’s Cricket. In the recent few years, the nation’s women’s cricket team has also garnered the limelight for all the good reasons. Hope to see both the teams performing their best. Cricket has been included yet again in the Asian games after being left out in Indonesia. 

Other top players to watch out from the Indian contingent for the upcoming mega sporting event are as follows:

1. Tajinderpal Singh Toor - Men’s shot put
2. Bhavani Devi - Women’s individual sabre Fencing
3. Aditi Ashok - Women’s Golf
4. Jinson Johnson - Men’s 1500m race
5. Jyothi Surekha Vennam - Compound Archery
6. Rudrankksh Patil - Shooting - Men’s 10m Air Rifle
7. Tejaswin Shankar – Decathlon
8. Seema Punia - Women’s discus throw
9. HS Prannoy - Men’s singles Badminton
10. Kidambi Srikanth - Men’s singles Badminton
11. Pranati Nayak - Women’s artistic individual Gymnastics
12. Manu Bhaker - Women’s 25m sports pistol Shooting
13. Saurav Ghosal - Men’s Squash
14. Joshna Chinappa - Women’s Squash
15. Dipika Pallikal Karthik - Women’s Squash
16. Sharath Kamal - Men's singles, doubles Table Tennis
17. G. Sathiyan - Men's singles, doubles, mixed doubles Table Tennis
18. Manika Batra - Women's singles, mixed doubles Table Tennis
19. Yuki Bhambri - Men's doubles, mixed doubles Lawn Tennis
20. Bajrang Punia - Men's freestyle 65kg Wrestling

Missed out players

Amid a solid overall team, some of the top athletes who couldn’t make it to the Asian Games will be deeply missed. The most popular of these include:

1. Dipa Karmakar – Gymnastics: She couldn’t qualify due to technical reasons
2. Vinesh Phogat – Wrestling: The ace wrestler withdrew her name due to a knee injury
3. Hima Das - 4×400 m relay: The young and promising sprinter has been ruled out due to a hamstring injury
4. Amit Panghal – Boxing: Couldn’t qualify in the selection trials
5. Rani Rampal – Hockey: Ruled out due to fitness concerns
    

Overall, we anticipate the Asian Games 2023 to be a memorable extravaganza where who’s who of the sports world will lock horns with each other to prove their supremacy. The Chinese contingent is always the favourite, be it the Asian Games or the Olympics. But this time, we expect our Indian team to give them a tough fight. Fingers crossed!

                                                                               
                                                             
                                                        Article Written and Edited by Mohammad Atif