India's best ever Asian Games medals tally, is thanks to Indian athletics coming of age

Even before the superstar Neeraj Chopra takes the field, Indian athletes have recorded their best-ever haul at the Asian Games with some breathtaking performances.

On October 3, Parul Chaudhary ran the race of her life. At Hangzhou’s Olympic stadium, the 28-year-old distance runner from Uttar Pradesh was an embodiment of self-belief and calmness, and showed just how well she could execute race tactics as she added a historic gold—India’s first in Asian Games history—in the women’s 5000m.

The race began at a fast pace, and Chaudhary comfortably placed herself in the fourth position, the runners in a cluster, led by Japan’s Ririka Hironaka. By the time the second 1000m came up, Bahrain’s Edao Bontu was in the lead, jostling with Hiranaka, even as the pace dropped further. But Chaudhary was not interested in these tussles, content to remain just behind the leaders, running with perfect rhythm, her muscles relaxed, and breathing easy. By the time the final couple of laps came around, other runners were visibly tiring, falling off the pace, the cluster broken up into groups of one or two runners graphed along the track.

Now Hironaka was in the lead, straining to maintain it, and Chaudhary was second by a good distance, but still running with the same easy rhythm, the same focused stride. So far, good but predictable running from the Indian national record holder for a predictable podium finish. But this is where it all changed dramatically. The Japanese runner, on the final bend, gave her final surge, speeding up and widening the lead with Chaudhary. The Indian runner picked up pace, but at a more even rate, still holding her nerves, still strictly running the plan. With just under 100m to the finish line, Hironaka, fatigued by her already-executed final kick, began to slow rapidly. This is what Chaudhary was waiting for—but did she have a kick to offer at this late stage of a gruelling race?

Yes, and how—Chaudhary surged past Hironaka at full tilt in the last 50m, shocking the Japanese and the spectators, everyone but herself, as she swept to the Women's 5000m gold, just a day after she had claimed the 3000m Steeplechase silver behind world champion Mutile Yavi of Bahrain.

“I was so tired last night after the steeplechase,” Chaudhary said, “that I hardly slept. But somehow in the morning my body was full of energy and my mind was calm, I was thinking only of getting the gold in 5000m. I already had a silver, now I wanted a gold.”

Soon after Chaudhary’s spectacular run, fellow UP athlete Annu Rani came out guns blazing for the women’s javelin. The experienced thrower has had a difficult season, without medals, and without breaching the 60m mark once, even though she had set the national record just last year with a 63.83m throw.

“I was in a bad place,” Rani said, “and I told myself that if the Asian Games did not go my way, I will retire.”

Instead, she executed two 60m-plus throws in her six attempts, her fourth throw sailed 62.92m, handing her the first Asian Games gold medal of her long career.

And so it rolled on for India on the track and field of the Asian Games, medal after medal, unexpected, dominating performances, gritty, come-from-behind victories, young first-timers and veterans performing at their best or close to their best, not just at domestic competitions (as Indian athletes often do) but on the Asian stage, and that most rare privilege—two Indians on the podium for a single event, which happened not just once but thrice over the last three days of athletics.

Here’s a brief run through those three packed days which included: Avinash Sable setting the 3000m Steeplechase Games record, Chaudhary and Priti Lamba finishing silver and bronze in the women’s steeplechase, Karthik Kumar and Gulveer Singh taking silver and bronze in men’s 10,000m; Murali Sreeshankar doing his self-confidence a world of good with a series of 8m-plus jumps and finally the silver in the men’s long jump to break his long pattern of performing far from his best on the big stage; Vithya Ramraj, a 25-year-old from Tamil Nadu, evoking a golden age as she equalled PT Usha’s 39-year-old national record of 55.42s, set in a historic 400m hurdles race at the 1984 LA Olympics, in the qualifying round at Hangzhou, before bagging a silver in the 4X400 mixed relay later that same day and then the bronze in the 400m Hurdles the next day; Ancy Sojan’s ebullient, flashy long jump silver, where she showed an infectious spirit whether it was charging herself up before each jump, or trying to boost the confidence of compatriot Shaili Singh who was not having a good day; Tejaswin Shankar breaking a decade-old national record en route to silver in the men’s decathlon; Mohammed Afsal coming into his own with a silver in the 800m; Ajay Saroj and Jinson Johnson’s silver and bronze in the 1500m; and 2018 Asiad champion Tajinderpal Singh Toor showing that he is still Asia’s best by a distance in the shot put.

As it stands now, with two days of track and field remaining, and even before India’s lone global athletics star, world and Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra has taken the field, India has 23 medals in athletics, the highest tally ever, already three better than the previous best in 2018, and miles ahead of performances even further into the past (13 medals in 2014, 12 in 2010, etc.).

India shines brighter than ever before at the Asian Games! With 71 medals, we are celebrating our best-ever medal tally, a testament to the unparalleled dedication, grit and sporting spirit of our athletes. Every medal highlights a life journey of hard work and passion. A… pic.twitter.com/lkLaRvm8pn— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) October 4, 2023

Is this the beginning of a coming of age of Indian athletics? Everything points to it. The Asian Games haul is an unexpected joy only because we are conditioned to seeing our athletes, no matter what their personal bests, perform below par on the biggest stages, used to them looking visibly nervous, making rookie mistakes, getting flustered trying to execute game plans. Not so at Hangzhou, where both the young and the experienced took the stage with an easy confidence, determination, and an ability to stick to their plans. This has been some time in the making. Even though the Athletics Federation of India continues to be poorly run (mismanagement is rife and often even the basics, like organizing regular domestic competitions, can be hit or miss for them), other initiatives, including Khelo India, the Central government’s nationwide program to provide competition and scouting opportunities at the school and college level, the TOPS programme which extends ample funding for our topmost athletes, and, most crucially, allows them to work with their coach and training facility of their choice instead of tying them down to national camps, and the new frontiers being opened by the likes of Chopra, Sable, and Sreeshankar, which allows other athletes, especially the younger generation, to walk into major competitions with the belief that they belong.

Allowing athletes to be the architects of their own career has been a key change: this is why Chopra works with one of the world’s most renowned throw experts, Dr Klaus Bartonietz, and trains in South Africa, Finland, or the US. Sable and Chaudhary have been working with an American coach and training in Colorado for the past two years. Sreeshankar and fellow jumper and national record holder Jeswin Aldrin work with a Cuban coach at the privately run Inspire Institute of Sports in Bellary, Karnataka, home also to the 400m runners, who train under a Jamaican coach. It is this access to elite knowledge, coaching, and infrastructure that makes all the difference, and it is something Indian athletes have historically lacked.

These are the reasons why we did better than ever before in 2018, won an Olympic gold in 2021, and began participating in the elite Diamond League (Chopra, Aldrin, Sreeshankar, and Sable are all regulars) since 2021.

It is a wonderful step up for India. Still very far from being a force to reckon with at the global level (except Chopra), but getting comfortable rubbing shoulders with the Asian giants China and Bahrain.