It was another hugely successful day at the Asian Games with India completing half-century in the medals tally. The current number reads 53. Here, ESPN India picks out 10 unique numbers that truly helped define the day that India had on Sunday, October 1.
15
India won 15 medals on Sunday, the most the nation has ever won on a single day. What made it even better for the Indian sports fan was the variety of disciplines from which they came: athletics, badminton, shooting and boxing.
9/8
The athletics bit was especially stunning. In eight finals, Indians won nine medals, a stunning double coming in the men’s 1500m. The medals came from all corners: expected giants, exciting debutants, and those many (wrongly) considered past their prime.
3 — to — 2
Jyothi Yarraji finished third in her race. She walked up to the podium and was awarded silver. What happened in between that, what happened in the race, what happened before the race is nothing short of chaos. And we’ve tried to explain that here.
22
Kynan Darius Chenai’s bronze in the men’s trap was India’s 22nd in shooting. That makes Hangzhou 2023 (or 2022, officially) the best showing for Indian shooting in the history of the Asiad, beating the tally of 14 from Doha 2006.
2
India were leading 2-0. Lakshya Sen had won. Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty won. Kidambi Srikanth had two game points to win game 1 of the third match of this men’s badminton team final…. And then Li Shi Feng mounted a comeback and a half. He won the game, he won the match, and India lost ground rapidly.
Still, the eventual silver was a historic one: it’s the first time that India have won a medal in the men’s badminton team event.
4.25
Avinash Sable ran, everyone else chased. In what was one of the most dominant displays on an Asiad track by an Indian, Sable completely dominated the men’s 3000m steeplechase final to win by 4.25 seconds. And he did that while jogging and celebrating much before the finish line. Incredible.
3-2
For the first time in a long time, Nikhat Zareen won’t wear gold at a major international tournament. Or any tournament she’s entered her name in. And that’s because of a sensational bout by Thailand’s Chuthamat Raksat in the women’s 50kg semis. Nikhat returns with a bronze, but it’s a mark of who she is that this will be considered a major disappointment.
20.36
Tajinderpal Singh Toor was struggling. Two fouls in his first two attempts, and the defending champion was in real danger of not qualifying for the final eight… and then he threw a 19.51m to squeeze into the final. He then threw a 20.06 and that was still good enough for silver. As someone who’d set the Asian record (again) just a few months back, this would have been a disappointment. He then fouled again, before in his last throw, stepping up and throwing a massive 20.36. Gold, done and dusted.
Incredible.
0.03
The distance between gold and silver for Sreeshankar Murali. He jumped 8.19m (only ratified after much discussion between him and the judges checking for a foul mark) but was 0.03m behind defending champion (and former world champion) Wang Jianan who hit 8.22m. Agonising.
40
Gold in 2014. Bronze in 2018. Seema Punia has been doing this gig for a long while now, and she wasn’t going to stop medalling at the Asiad just because she’d turned 40 a couple of months ago. So she went out there, threw a 58.62m in her fourth throw and that was bronze yet again.
Source: www.espn.com