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Hangzhou: Indian team on Saturday crossed the 100-medal milestone by winning gold medals in archery and kabaddi at the Hangzhou Asian Games on the final day of the event. The largest Asian Games in history came to a close on Sunday after two weeks of competition in 40 sports with 12,000 athletes taking part.
Saturday’s competition looks set to be the most exciting day in two weeks, with 24 sports competing for gold medals, including football, cricket, badminton and hockey. The men’s football final is expected to be one of the highlights, with South Korea competing against Japan for its third consecutive title. The first medal in the history of the Asian Games was breakdancing, which will make another milestone debut at next year’s Paris Olympics.
In Hangzhou, where the weather was grey and wet, India swept both gold medals in archery at the start of the tournament and won another gold by defeating Taiwan in the women’s kabaddi event. India defied all expectations at home by crossing the 100-medal mark and more medals are expected after the tournament. India will play Iran in the men’s kabaddi final later on Saturday, while Indian men’s cricketers will battle Afghanistan for gold.
This bodes well for the Games, which are less than 10 months away in Paris. “A big achievement for India at the Asian Games!” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Twitter. “The people of India are happy that we have won 100 medals, a fantastic milestone.” India’s highest medal tally at the Asian Games was 70 in 2018 in Indonesia.
India performed particularly well in archery in Hangzhou, winning five gold medals, but will still be well behind China in the overall medal table when the Games end on Sunday.
The host nation led the way with 364 medals, 192 of which were gold. – China’s ‘lazy’ – It wasn’t all good news for the Chinese team. They won bronze in men’s basketball, but that was far below the expectations of fans and eight-time NBA All-Star Yao Ming.
Yao, now chairman of the Chinese Basketball Association, was harshly critical of the performance of the Chinese men’s team, which lost to eventual champions the Philippines in the semifinals. China also performed poorly in the World Cup last month and failed to qualify for the Paris Olympics.
Yao Ming said it was “difficult for the Chinese team to quickly adjust their status” after the World Cup defeat, but warned they must face reality. “There are two types of slackness – one is lack of discipline, and the other is wanting to eat up the opponent in one go,” he told Xinhua.
“It’s also a kind of slackness.” Yao, who played for the Houston Rockets from 2002 to 2011, said other countries were “improving very fast,” noting that regional rival Japan had already qualified for Paris. “The pain comes from the huge gap between Chinese basketball and world basketball,” he said, promising an “open platform” to solve the problem.
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