New Delhi: The Indian contingent have started their Asian Games 2023 campaign in a scintillating fashion.
India has already won 11 medals, including two gold, three silver and six bronze, in the 19th Asian Games by the time this article was written.
India sent their biggest ever contingent to Hangzhou, China, this year, i.e. 655 athletes, which is 85 more than the last Asian Games in 2018, in Jakarta, which was 570 athletes.
India expected a record number of medals from their athletes this time around, and the Indian athletes have started their campaign in just that manner.
India opened their medal tally with the Indian women’s shooting trio of Ashi Chouksey, Mehuli Ghosh and Ramita Jindal, winning silver in the women’s 10m air rifle team event.
India then won 3 back-to-back medals in rowing, with the Indian men’s eight team and men’s lightweight double sculls duo of Arvind Singh and Arun Lal Jat, winning silver for India, while the Indian pair of Babu Lal Yadav and Lekh Ram wining bronze for India.
India wins the third medal in the #AsianGames as Lekh Ram and Babu Lal Yadav clinch the bronze in the Men’s pair rowing final.
My heartfelt congratulations to them and best wishes for their future endeavors. pic.twitter.com/UxpnZZ6grM
— Amit Shah (@AmitShah) September 24, 2023
Indian shooter Ramita Jindal secured a bronze medal in the women’s 10m air rifle individual event, giving India their fifth and final medal for day 1.
India started their day 2, in a scintillating way with the men’s shooting trio of Rudrankksh Patil, Divyansh Singh Panwar and Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, winnings India’s first gold medal of the Asian Games 2023.
First Gold medal for India in Asian Games 2023 🇮🇳
– National Anthem of India, Goosebumps moment. pic.twitter.com/yXxBG1wvna
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) September 25, 2023
The trio also broke China’s world record for the event of 1893.3 points by clocking a total of 1893.7 in the finals.
Rowing once again took charge as India won two bronze medals in the men’s four (Jaswinder Singh, Bheem Singh, Ashish and Punit Kumar) and men’s quadruple (Parminder Singh, Satnam Singh, Jakar Khan, Sukhmeet Singh) event.
🇮🇳 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗮 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗥𝗼𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 5⃣ 𝗺𝗲𝗱𝗮𝗹𝘀! Congratulations to all the members of the Rowing contingent who made India proud!
🥈 Rowing – Men’s lightweight double sculls
🥉 Rowing – Men’s pair
🥈 Rowing – Men’s eight
🥉 Rowing – Men’s four… pic.twitter.com/Me30UsGPtk— Team India at the Asian Games 🇮🇳 (@sportwalkmedia) September 25, 2023
India’s Aishwary Pratap Singh followed Ramita Jindal’s footsteps and became the double medal winner by winning bronze in the men’s 10m air rifle Individual event.
Indian shooting trio of Vijayveer Sidhu, Anish, and Adarsh Singh secured another bronze medal for India in the men’s 25m rapid-fire shooting, team event, to take the Indian medal tally to double digits.
Last but not least, India secured their second gold medal in the day courtesy of the Indian women’s cricket team, who defeated the Sri Lanka women by 19 runs in the finals.
Congratulations, @BCCIWomen, for clinching the first-ever gold medal 🥇 in cricket for our nation! A historic feat achieved with a superb all-round performance. Well played, girls. 🇮🇳#INDvSL #IndiaAtAG22 pic.twitter.com/HJ1Rjhhz8q
— Mithali Raj (@M_Raj03) September 25, 2023
Despite Smriti Mandhana (46) and Jemimah Rodrigues (42), Indian batting was below par as they only managed to give Sri Lanka women a target of 117 runs.
However, with the help of their exceptional bowling performance, led by Titas Sandu’s dream spell of 3 for 6, in 4 overs, helped India clinch the gold medal, forcing Sri Lanka women to settle for the silver.
