Asian Games: With 18 gold medals, India achieve historic first in 72 years | Asian Games 2023 News

NEW DELHI: Out on a medal hunting spree at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, India produced a historic feat on Wednesday, registering their best-ever outing at the continental event as the athletes took the overall medal count to a staggering 81 so far — the highest ever.
With a total of 12 medals in multiple disciplines, led by athletics events on Day 11, India surpassed their previous best total of 70 medals of Jakarta and Palembang Games in 2018.
It was another medal rush for India on Wednesday as there were a total of 7 medals in athletics, two in boxing and one each in squash, archery and wrestling.
While in the 2018 Games, India had 15 gold, 24 silver and 30 bronze medals, in the ongoing edition, the biggest-ever contingent has already bagged 18 gold, 31 silver and 32 bronze medals.
India are currently on the fourth spot in the standings behind hosts China, Japan and South Korea.
The track and field athletics have so far accounted for 29 medals — the highest — while the shooters secured 22 podium finishes in India’s 81 medals so far.

The day once again belonged to the Indian track and field athletes and was led by star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, who successfully defended his 2018 gold. Neeraj prevailed in an intense and stirring duel with compatriot Kishore Jena after brushing aside a technical glitch to defend his title.

While India earned a well-deserved maiden compound mixed team gold (Jyothi Vennam and Ojas Deotale) earlier in the day, the men’s 400m relay team also retained its title to end the day on a high.
The quartet of Anas Muhammed Yahiya, Amoj Jacob, Muhammed Ajmal Variyathodi and Rajesh Ramesh sealed the top prize with a timing of 3:01.58.
Indian quartet of Vithya Ramraj, Aishwarya Mishra, Prachi and Subha Venkatesan claimed a silver in women’s 4x400m relay. The women’s quartet came up with an effort of 3:27.85 to finish second.

Harmilan Bains and Avinash Sable won a silver medal each in women’s 800m and men’s 5000m respectively. While Harmilan clocked an impressive timing of 2:03.75 to bag the silver, Sable produced an effort of 13:21.09.
Earlier, race walkers Manju Rani and Ram Baboo won the bronze medal in the inaugural 35km mixed team event.

Wrestler Sunil Kumar also achieved a remarkable feat, clinching India’s first Greco-Roman wrestling medal in 13 years. Sunil secured the bronze medal in the 87kg category.
Boxers Lovlina Borgohain and Praveen Hooda grabbed a silver and a bronze respectively in the day.