Indian athletes bag three medals at Asian Games 2018; Bajrang Punia strikes Gold and makes country proud

NewsBharati    20-Aug-2018
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Jakarta, August 20: Exemplifying their electrifying performance, Indian athletes have so far bagged three medals including a Gold in the Asian Games which is being held at Jakarta, Indonesia.

 

Notably, India’s biggest medal hope in men's wrestling, Bajrang Punia on Sunday delivered on his promise on clinched first Gold medal for the country in the 65 kg freestyle wrestling event by beating Japan's Daichi Takatani 11-8 in the final bout.


Bajrang started off the summit clash with a convincing 6-0 lead before Daichi made it 4-6 in the first period. Both wrestlers endured a tough battle in the second period but in the end Bajrang held his nerves to emerge victorious.


Top Indian shooters Apurvi Chandela and Ravi Kumar won the bronze medal in the 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team event. The duo aggregated 429.9 after 42 shots in the 48-shot final and was in the second spot for major part of the 48-shot finals before China overtook them to take the silver.

While Deepak Kumar clinched India’s third medal at the Asian Games, who won silver in the Men’s 10m Air Rifle category. Deepak finished second with a score of 247.7 while China’s Haoran Yang won the gold with an Asian Games record score of 249.1.


On the other side, the Indian women hockey team also began their campaign with a thunderous 8-0 victory against the home favourites Indonesia. Unfortunately, India missed out on medals too. Sushil Kumar suffered a shock first-round exit and none of the swimmers did well to win a medal either.

Asian Games is having the participation of around 11000 athletes from 45 countries including 540 Indians in 40 sports and 67 disciplines consisting of 28 Olympic sports, 4 new Olympic sports and 8 non-Olympic sports. Some of the events, including Handball and Football, began last week. The Indian contingent at the games was led by Javelin Thrower Neeraj Chopra with the national flag at the glittering opening ceremony.

BACKGROUND:

The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years between athletes from all over Asia. Since 1982, the Games have been organized by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA). Prior to that, the Games were regulated by the Asian Games Federation (AGF).

The AGF regulated the very first Asian Games, which were held in New Delhi, India in 1951 until the 1978 Games, till the federation’s breakup. The Games are the second largest multi-sport event after the Olympic Games.

Overall, nine nations have hosted the Asian Games and forty-six nations have participated in it, including Israel, which was excluded from the Games after their last participation in 1974. The last edition of the Games was hosted by Incheon, South Korea from 19 September to 4 October 2014. The current edition was originally scheduled to be hosted by Vietnam in Hanoi, however, the country withdrew its bid, based on economic considerations.

Following Vietnam’s withdrawal, Indonesia offered to hold the 18th Asian Games. This will be the second time that Indonesia hosts the Asian Games. The first one was held in Jakarta in 1962. However, this will be the first time that the Asian Games will be held in two cities - Jakarta and Palembang.