India had a haul of 308 medals, inclusive of 188 gold and 90 silver, which put to shade its previous best of 214 medals at the 2006 Games in Colombo. That Sri Lanka, which finished second, only had a total of 186 medals, should put in perspective the supremacy the home team enjoyed in the 22 disciplines across the venues here and in Shillong.
The resounding success at these Games is certain to have a major impact, popularity-wise at least, on Olympic disciplines in the country and raise hopes of an improved showing at the Rio Games when compared to London four years ago.
The display here is sure to put the onus back on the powers-that-be to infuse more resources into the system and unveil a robust youth development programme with greater emphasis on providing better coaching and scientific support than at present.
Youngsters to the fore
This, especially so, when one looks back at the superb performances unleashed by a string of youngsters who are bound to be the future sporting heroes of the country.
The exploits of javelin throwers Neeraj Chopra and Suman Devi, both touching personal bests, long distance runner L. Surya winning a double, young P.U. Chithra collaring her first international senior gold medal with a last ditch effort in the 1500m and Srabani Nanda ending Sri Lanka’s domination in sprints with an impressive showing in the 200m, was heart-warming.
The performances from the experienced Arokya Rajeev, Renjith Maheswary, Mayookha Johny, M.R. Poovamma and Gayathry Govindaraj also led India to its second-best show in track and field.
In the pool, like the past two editions, India encountered a stiff challenge from Sri Lanka swimmers led by Matthew Abeysinghe and Kimiko Raheem. But there were enough moments to cheer as Sandeep Sejwal, P.S. Madhu, V. Malavika and Damini K. Gowda showcased their talent and saved the country from total embarrassment
Indian lifters just pumped iron expectedly, with Sambo Lapong leading the way, while the archers and boxers made a clean sweep of the titles at stake. Teams in tennis, table tennis, triathlon, badminton, handball, volleyball, kabaddi and kho-kho also had a windfall.
The wrestlers were not left far behind, dropping just two of the 16 gold medals, with young Ravinder proving his mettle. Shuttler Ruthvika Shivani created a flutter by pulling off a coup against the favourite P.V. Sindhu in the women’s singles final.
And then, there was a bagful of gold medals from the shooters. Chain Singh enjoyed a memorable ride, coming up with three successive wins over a seasoned Gagan Narang, and young Yashaswini Singh Deswal emerged as the new face of Indian shooting and in line to follow in the footsteps of Apurvi Chandela, Anjum Moudgil and Shweta Singh.
Slightly removed from these pleasing takeaways were the losses suffered in men’s hockey and football, though the setback suffered against Pakistan in hockey can be excused as India was in only with a totally scratch combination as the much-delayed Games clashed with the Hockey India League. Over-confidence did have a major say in India’s defeat to Nepal in football as was the case in men’s squash.
Unfortunate too was the cancellation of the basketball competitions as the bickering between the Indian Olympic Association and the Basketball Federation of India led to FIBA asking teams to not participate.
Not far removed was the apathy of the State government towards the Games in the background of an Organizing Committee thrust on it by the Union Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs and the upcoming Assembly elections. This led to a shoddy organisation and poor crowd support because of an intrusive security canopy. However, in the end, Indian sport came through as the winner as the host crossed the threshold marks of a 1000 gold medals and 2000 in total at the Games.
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