Asian Games 2014 - Incheon

[sameerph]

Not a long way off or anything. 1 more gold would have taken us there.

[TempSaniaFan]

Not yet updated on the official website. We will have to wait before putting the final medal tally even as some of these dope test results come out.

If there is one more such conversion we'll move up in overall ranking to 7th!!

BTW Taipei still has 4 more events.

[Omkara]

Saurav Ghoshals medal or our doubles team in tennis winning their SF match

[sameerph]

II checked details of our athletics performance at asiad. We won 13 medals as against 12 medals last time, but only 2 golds against 5 last time. However, due to large influx of African imports competing for middle east nations, we lost as many as as 8 medals and 3 golds. But, for these runners, it would have been gold for Rajeev Arokia (400M), Naveen Kumar ( 3000M steeplchase) and OP Jaisha ( womens 1500M). All 3 of them had posted their personal best but had to be satisfied with boronze medals instead of gold. Further, 10 of our athletes posted their personal bests but 5 of them had to return without any medal. I feel very bad for these athletes as now they have to miss out on all the cash prizes and all due to something which beyond their control. Something must by done by IOC to make these athlete representation rules stricter.

It certainly affected our overall medal tally (as it would have for some of the other nations too such primarily Japan.)

[jayakris]

Thanks, sameer. I did not realize that the imports issue directly affected us so badly. A little bit of it was there at the last Asiad too, but it seems to have really started to be a problem. I am sure Japan and others also will start doing something about this problem, but I am not sure how easy it would be. In any case, it is good too see that our athletics has not regressed that badly - and I say that with the presumption that his is happening with (hopefully) less of spinach-influence than we used to have in the past too.

Jay

[Prashant]

I agree this import problem is frustrating, but think about it from the perspective of the athlete, it makes a ton of sense for them. They will never be ranked even in the top 10 for Kenya or Ethiopia or wherever, but a change of nationality gives them a chance in the Olympics, the WC etc. Scandinavian countries have been importing distance runners for a while now. And, as someone pointed out several pages ago, the entire table tennis squads of many countries are all Chinese imports. Citizenship is a weird construct. Switzerland's WC soccer starting 11 had only one player with both Swiss parents. The rest were Kosovar, Turkish, Italian, and Argentinian.

[sameerph]

As per some news reports Manju Bala's bronze medal in women hammer throw has been upgraded to silver after one of the chinese was tested positive during the test....

It is officially confirmed now. So, now this is our final medal tally -

Gold (11) -

Jitu Rai ( Men 50M pistol individual)
Abhishek Verma, Rajan Chauhan and Sandeep Kumar ( mens compound archey team)
Saurav Ghosal, Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu and Mahesh Mangaonkar ( mens squash team)
Yogeshwar Dutt ( Wrestling - freestyle 55 kg.)
Sania Mirza / Saketh Myneni ( Tennis-Mixed doubles)
Seema Poonia (Athletics - Womens discuss throw)
M.C.Marykom ( Womens boxing - 51kgs.)
Mens Hockey team
Povamma, Mandeep Kaur, Tintu Luka and Priyanka Pawar ( Athletics - womens 4x400 M relay)
Kabaddi mens team
Kabaddi womens team

Silver (10)-
Saurav Ghosal ( Squash Mens singles)
Vijay Kumar, Gurpreet Singh, Pemba Tamang ( Mens centre fire pistol)
Abhishek Verma ( mens compound archery individual)
Dipika Pallikal, Joshana Chinappa and Anaka Alankamony ( womens sqush team)I
Khushbir Kaur ( Athletics - womens 20Km. walk.)
Sanam Singh / Saketh Myneni (Tennis -mens doubles)
Bajrang ( wrestling - mens freestyle 61 kgs.)
Vikas Gowda (Athletics - Men discus)
Tintu Luka (Athletics- Womens 800M)
Manju Bala (Athletics - Women hammer throw)


Bronze (36)

Shweta Chaudhari ( Women 10M Air Pistol individual)
Jitu Rai, Samresh Jung and Prakash Nanjappa (Men 10M Air pistol team)
Heena Siddhu, Rahi Sarnobat and Anisa Sayyed (Women 25 M Pistol team)
Badminton womens team event
Dipika Pallikal ( Squash women singles)
Abhinav Bindra ( Mens 10M Air rifle)
Abhinav Bindra, Sanjeev Rajput, Ravi Kumar ( Mens 10M Air rifle Team)
Narendra Grewal ( Wushu - Men's Sanda -60kg)
Sanathoi Devi (Wushu - Women's Sanda -52kg)
Dushyant ( Rowing - Lightweight single sculls)
Swaran Singh ( Rowing - single sculls)
Mens Eight ( Rowing)
Shreyasi Singh, Shagun Chaudhari and Varsha Verman (Shooting - womens double trap team)
Sandeep Sejwal ( Swimming - 50m breaststroke)
Chain Singh ( Mens 50m rifle 3 positions)
Trisha Deb, Purvasha Shende, Jyoti ( Womens compound archery team)
Trisha Deb ( Womens compound archery individual)
Vinesh ( Wrestling - womens 48 kg.)
Geetika Jakhar ( Wrestling - womens 63 kg.)
Lalita Babber ( Athletics - womens 3000m steepelchase)
Povamma ( Athletcis - Women 400m)
Rajiv Arokia ( Athletics - Men 400m)
Yuki Bhambri ( Tennis - mens singles)
Yuki Bhambri/ Divij Sharan ( Tennis - mens doubles)
Sania Mirza / Prarthana Thombre ( Tennis - womens doubles)
Naveen Kumar - (Athletics - Men's 3000m Steeplechase)
O.P. Jaisha ( Athletics - Women's 1500m)
Narsingh Yadav (Wrestling - Mens freestyle - 74 kgs.)
Sarita Devi ( Boxing - Womens - 60 Kgs.)
Pooja Rani ( Boxing - Womens - 75 kgs.)
Varsha Gautam / Aishwarya Nenuncheziyan ( Sailing - 29er - Women's Two Person Dinghy)
Womens Hockey team
Annu Rani (Athletics - Womens javelin)
Vikas Krishnan ( Boxing - 75 kg.)
Satish Kumar ( Boxing - 91+ Kg.)
Inderjeet Singh ( Athletics - Mens shot Put)

Tally - Total-57 medals, 11 Golds, 10 Silvers, 36 bronze - 8th position, tied 5th with Iran in terms of total medals.

13 in athletics,9 in shooting, 5 in wrestling, 5 in tennis, 5 in boxing ,4 in archery, 4 in squash, 3 in rowing, 2 in Wushu, 2 in hockey, 2 in kabaddi,1 in badminton , 1 in swimming , 1 in sailing.

[sameerph]

Top 5 reamained the same but North Korea and Thailand just sneaked past us. North Korea may have enjoyed some home type conditions advantage as they back in 12th place last time. In terms of total medals we were 6th last time but went ahead of Chinese Taipei this time to finish 5th.

Our next aim is to try to get ahead of Iran for 5th place but that will require lot of improvement in top gold level performances and going ahead of 20 golds at least.

And we consumed 53 pages in this threa instead of 86 last time.

[jaydeep]

And we consumed 53 pages in this threa instead of 86 last time.

Thanks for this last bit information ...

[Mugundan]

I agree with Prashant here that since track and field athletes, footballers, table tennis and badminton players etc from different countries have been representing their "adopted" countries including those in Europe, there would be little point in lamenting the fact that the Africans are denying us gold medals in athletics in the Asian Games. By the way, the men's 400m winner Youssef Al-Masrahi is Najran (KSA) born. He could be of African lineage but informration suggests a 'native' Saudi Arabian. Ali Abubaker Kamal (3000m steeplechase winner) is of Sudanese origin. This is his third Asian Games in Qatari colours (2002, 2006, 2014). Maryam Yusuf Jamal (1500 and 5000 winner) is of Ethiopian origin. She has been representing Bahrain since 2004. She is a two-time world champion, and Olympic bronze medallist (2012) in 1500m, after having opted for Bahrain. Nearly half of British athletics team is normally of Jamaican and other Caribbean countries origin. We don't know whether they are second generation Caribbeans settled in Britain or whether there are some "new" entrants who satisfy the rules of the IAAF and the IOC for eligibility.
PS-edited to clarify that Kamal has been representing Qatar since 2002. He missed the 2010 edition of AG.

[prasen9]

It is better to win against better athletes. If the imports are increasing standards, I am happy about it. There is no point in winning in the SAF games.

[Sin Hombre]

Then we shouldn't compete in anything bar the Olympics.

[Mugundan]

Then we shouldn't compete in anything bar the Olympics.

In order to do something noteworthy in Olympics, in a sport like athletics, if not others, we will need to not only compete but also win gold medals in the Asian Games, not bronze. To that end, participation in the Asian Games becomes a must. And competing against mediocre opposition, though it might fetch us medals, and cash awards for the athletes, will be of no use towards greater ambitions at the world level. The fact that there was only one individual gold medal in athletics in the Asian Games for India (Seema Antil in discus) and the fact that India's 4x400 timing of 3,28.68 is only 12th best (currently) in the world this season show where our standards are. Simply aiming for medals at the global level and talking about it (every athlete says "I am now aiming for a medal in the Olympics") will not produce success. That Independent India still does not even have a bronze in athletics in the Olympics again shows up our standards. The problem with authorities in India (and the media, too) has been we tend to just count the number of medals and not see how the performance compares with world standards. Though we must appreciate personal bests, that alone do not project a healthy picture of Indian athletics. Steeplechaser Naveen Kumar's 8,40.39 for bronze ranks 138th in the season lists for example.

[gbelday]

Well said, Mugu. On a separate note, it also looks like all our athletes are clean this time (no spinach issues).

[sameerph]

Mugu, I get your point about our performance.

But, medal tally in Asiad is not totally irrelevant. Why should Qatar or Bahrain be winning so many golds with imported athletes bought by them ? Should the medals in these games be won by a country with talented athletes or that which has large money bags to buy athletes raised in another country.
Isn't that against Olympic spirit ?