Road To Los Angeles: Episode 9 - Asian Games Edition

A lot of activity on the Indian Olympics front in the last few weeks with the Asian Games giving a preview of what to expect at Los Angeles. While the Olympics are still almost two years away, still get a good idea of things to look for. 

Here is a quick update on the events

The Qualifiers

• Hockey: Both the Men's & Women's Team have qualified by winning the Gold Medal at the Asian Games. While the Men made up a bit for the disappointing World Cup campaign, there is now a clear gulf in the class between India and the rest of Asia. The Women continued the upswing from the 5th place at the World Cup by winning the Gold after 44 Years
• Archery: Compound Mixed Team will be played for the first time at the Olympics. And the Indian duo of Chikitha Taniparthi & Sahil Jadhav earned the first ever Olympic quotas in the event. Kumkum Mohod broke the South Korean dominance in Recurve section and earned an Individual Quota place.

The Near Miss

• Squash: Both Anahat Singh & Abhay Singh lost in their respective Singles Finals to win Silver Medals. The Gold medallists earned Olympics quota

Asian Games Hits

• Recurve Archery, Shotgun Shooting, Boxing, Wrestling all brought in lots of medals and are in redemption phase 
• Team Sports getting double Golds - Hockey & Cricket (and of course Kabaddi as well)
• A first medal in Weightlifting since 1998 (that came as a bit of surprise - given that India won 2 Olympic medals in the interim!)
• Golf course providing a Gold
• Gulveer Singh & Vithya Ramraj  on the Tracks

Asian Games Misses

• Badminton - only one Team medal
• Tennis - a washout, after having been a guaranteed Gold supplier. Disappointing to see the legacy of Paes, Bhupathi, Bopanna, Sania going waste

And there were the usual administrative shenanigans, some sports excel in it and then the matter of doping which lead to few last-minute dropouts 

Asian Games Perspective for the LA

At first glance, it would seem there has been a decline in Team India's performance compared to Hangzhou, with medal count dropping from 106 to 85 & gold count dropping from 28 to 21, while the contingent retained the 4th place overall. However, if we consider it from a perspective of the Olympics events, a slightly different picture emerges.

17 of the 21 Golds have come in Olympic events. In contrast at Hangzhou, 12/28 were Olympics events. The boost has come from Cricket joining the roster and improved performances in Recurve Archery, Wrestling, Boxing.

A couple of caveats here

1. In many events at the Asian Games there are 2 Bronze medals awarded, unlike the Olympics which have a Bronze playoff. 
2. The Weight categories in Boxing may change, so there may not be a direct correlation between Aichi-Nagoya and LA
3. Mirabai Chanu's weight category is not included and she is likely to move up to a higher weight category

Qualification Summary: Sports - 3; Events - 5; Entries - 5; Athletes - 50 

Till Next time!

Links: Episode 8