Sweet 16th after record 64 medals

November 28, 2010 | Filed under: More Sports News | Posted by: Anwesha Bose

India came up with their best ever medal tally in any Asian Games at the Guangzhou games which ended here Saturday. India’s 14 gold medals are one less than their best-ever gold tally of 15 at the inaugural Games in Delhi in 1951, when only 11 countries and 489 athletes took part, and one better than their tally at home in the 1982 New Delhi Games. The super charge led by athletes, boxers and tennis players in the last seven days of the Asian Games not only provided the impetus to the floundering Indian campaign but also scripted a memorable climax as the country recorded its best ever performance at the sporting event.

India ended its campaign in the sporting spectacle in the sixth position with 14 gold, bettering the 13 won at home in Delhi 28 years ago, 17 silver and 33 bronze medals.

The total medal haul of 64 here is also the highest for India in Asiad history as it bettered the 1982 haul in Delhi of 57 comprising 13-19-25.

Indians, it would seem, make for non-travelling fans. While the Commonwealth Games displayed this country’s passion for its’ sportsmen and women in all its colourful spirit, with real pride for the likes of Suranjoy Singh and Saina Newhal to mention but a few, the same cannot be said for the Asian Games being held in Guangzhou, China.
The Guangzhou games are an equal, if not bigger, stage for athletes to test their mettle against some of the world’s finest. Why, then, the dearth of coverage on television and newspapers, the lack of buzz at the watercooler and waiting for the bus, the meal offers and live screenings of Indian performances?
Perhaps the country is suffering from a CWG hangover, and given the games’ shaky start and glorious finish, this may be a fair assumption – the nation drawing a collective sigh of relief at a job well done. But for the Suranjoys and Sainas of India, that sigh is brief, and the sporting calendar is more packed than ten days in four years. They deserve the country’s continuing support.

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