Sunday, November 28, 2010

16th Asian Games: India Gives Best-Ever Performance

The largest-ever 16th Asian Games concludes in the Chinese city of Guangzhou on 27 November. The closing ceremony too was a colorful one. The opening ceremony had been held on the banks of the Pearl River in Guangzhou on 12 November. The skies lit up with dazzling fireworks as an emotional China brought the curtains down on the biggest Asian Games in a riot of color, foot-tapping music and a cultural extravaganza at the Haixinsha Island on the Pearl River. If the opening ceremony held at the same riverside venue on 12 November was high on technical wizardry, the closing was a heart-touching display of warmth by the people of this South China city whose infrastructure has improved remendously as a result of hosting the Games.

With the theme of "Thrilling Games, Harmonious Asia, the Guangzhou Games had the most sports ever contested in the games' 59-year history, as it included 28 Olympic sports and 14 non-Olympic which featured 476 events. The games witnessed the debuts of cricket, dance sport, dragon boat, roller sport and go chess.

On a continent inhabited by nearly two thirds of the world's population, the Asian Games have become Asia's largest sports event and a symbol of unity between different cultures, politics and religions. Guangdong built and renovated 70 stadiums and gymnasiums, including 53 competition and 17 training venues. Twelve of the 70 were built from scratch.

Over two-plus weeks of the 16th Asian Games, South Korea discovered a new rival in the field of continental athletic competition -- itself. South Korea accomplished both of its much-publicized goals. It won 76 gold medals, more than the projected total of 65, and it out dueled Japan's 48 in the gold medal count.

With China expected to run away on home soil, South Korea had from the beginning set out to be the second-best by edging its rival Japan for the fourth straight Asian Games. Four years ago at Doha, South Korea beat Japan 58-50 in gold medals, but Japan actually won more medals overall, 198-193.

But it was a different story in Guangzhou. South Korea nearly doubled up Japan in gold medals, and only the last-minute spurt by Japan in athletics, kayak and karate kept the margin respectable.

Overwhelming Performance by China
The host China showed its overwhelming prowess by sweeping 199 gold medals followed by South Korea and Japan. China, which also won 119 silver and 98 bronze, topped the table for the eighth straight time, smashing its best gold tally of 183, set in the 1990 Beijing Games.
The Chinese women accounted for 112 of the 199 gold medals, 67 of the 119 silver medals and 41 of the 98 bronze medals in the overall tally. No wonder China outclassed Korea (75) and Japan (48) in the gold hunt.

China won most of its gold medals in swimming (24), shooting (21), artistic gymnastics (13), athletics (12), diving (10), rowing (10), dance sport (10), wushu (9), canoeing and kayaking (9), cycling (8), table tennis (7), badminton (5), boxing (5), billiard sports (4), bowling (4), fencing (4), sailing (4), taekwondo (4), and some of them in games like chess (3), synchronized swimming (3), dragon boat (3), basketball (2), tennis (2), beach volleyball (2), judo (2), karate (2), modern pentathlon (2), trampoline gymnastics (2), xiangqi (2), handball (1), hockey (1), roller sports (1), soft tennis (1), water polo (1), volleyball (1).

It showed how China not only focused on the 28 Olympic disciplines, but on every gold medal that was on offer, in the 42 sports.

High Time for South Korea
Thirty-six out of the 45 participating teams medaled in the 16-day games, in which South Korea garnered 232 medals, including 76 gold, beating Japan into a distant third with 48 gold among 216 medals. Taiwan took home 13 gold, 16 silver and 38 bronze medals as the Asian Games concluded in Guangzhou, China, finishing with its second biggest gold medal haul and its best performance in 12 years at the games.

Taiwan recorded its best performance in the Asian Games in Bangkok, Thailand in 1998, when it bagged 19 gold, 17 silver and 41 bronze medals. It only won nine gold medals at the quadrennial games in Doha, Qatar, four years ago.

Compared to other countries, Taiwan came seventh in terms of the number of gold medals won, and fifth in terms of the total number of medals its athletes clinched.

India created history by recording their best-ever medal tally in the Asian Games -- 14 gold, 17 silver and 33 bronze to finish in sixth position. Of the 14 gold medals, India achieved five of them from athletics.

Beauty and Charm
The games gathered dozens of world-level champions, and their performances inspired much applause and cheering. The most charming of the Chinese male athletes might be badminton player Lin Dan and hurdler Liu Xiang. Lin is nicknamed “Super Dan” and has won championship titles in the Olympics, the World Championships, the All-England Championships, the Thomas Cup, Sudirman Cup and now the ASIAD. Liu Xiang, another world-level athlete, competed in the men’s 110m hurdles. His debut attracted over 60,000 spectators.

Swimmers Park Tae-hwan from South Korea and Kosuke Kitajima from Japan shone in the swimming pool. Park ended the ASIAD with 7 medals, including 2 golds, 3 silvers and 3 bronzes. He has a strong chance of winning his second Asian Games Most Valuable Player award this year.

With their lovely faces, some particularly attractive athletes have also come under the spotlight, including the women’s nine ball players Pan Xiaoting from China and Cha Yu-Ram from South Korea, as well as the synchronized swimming twins the Jiang’s and Ping Pong player Ai Fukuhara.

India’s Biggest Asiad Haul
India created history by recording their best-ever performance in the Asian Games with 64 medals, including a record 14 gold. With the addition of 11 more medals, India’s tally climbed to a record 14 gold, 17 silver and 33 bronze (total 64), the biggest ever haul in the Asian Games so far, to jump to the sixth place.

India’s best medal haul was recorded in the 1982 Games in New Delhi when they had won 13 gold, 19 silver and 25 bronze for an overall tally of 57. India had finished 10th in the last edition of the Games in Doha with a tally of 10-17-26. The sixth spot on the medal rostrum by India is the best it has attained since 1986 at Seoul, where the country ended fifth with a more modest haul of 5-9-23.

Historic Boxing Gold: World number one Vijender Singh (75kg) clinched an unprecedented second boxing gold for India at the ongoing Asian Games while two others settled for silver to round off the best ever campaign by the country’s pugilists at the quadrennial mega-event.

It was sweet revenge for Olympic and World Championship bronze-medallist Vijender when he blanked reigning world champion Abbos Atoev of Uzbekistan 7-0 at the Foshan Gymnasium. Atoev had beaten the 25-year-old Indian at the World Championship semifinals last year but this time Vijender plugged the loopholes which led to that loss and emerged a clear winner.
However, V. Santhosh Kumar (64kg) and Manpreet Singh (91kg) settled for silver medals after losing in the finals. While Santhosh lost 1-16 to Kazakhstan's Daniyar Yeleussinov in finals, Manpreet went down 1-8 to Mohammad Ghossoun of Syria to take India's silver tally to three in boxing after Dinesh Kumar (81kg) had finished second.

Indian boxers thus ended their campaign with two gold — the first coming through Vikas Krishan (60kg), three silver and two bronze medals — Suranjoy Singh (52kg) and Paramjeet Samota (+91kg). Santhosh opened the proceedings for India and found himself on the backfoot from the very start. Too defensive and somewhat intimidated, the Indian could neither prevent his rival from connecting punches nor create any noteworthy attacking chance.

Dominance in Kabaddi: Barely hours after Indian women’s kabaddi team made a memorable Asian Games debut by clinching the gold, their male counterparts recorded their sixth consecutive yellow metal in the quadrennial event with a comfortable victory over Iran.

The Indian men’s team, who clinched the gold in every edition of the quadrennial event since the game’s introduction in 1990, managed to prevail over Iran 37-20 at the Nansha Gymnasium.
India led 24-3 at half-time after Iran failed to secure a single lona against India’s four. The Indians also got a couple of bonus points in the opening half.

However, after the crossover, Iran was the better side on display and managed to dominate the proceedings, bagging 17 points as against India’s 13.

But it was not enough to earn them a gold as overall India proved to be a better side with six lonas against two of their opponents and 28 outs to stamp their supremacy in the sport.

Golden Track: India ended their athletics campaign in the Asian Games with a bagful of medals with the women's 4x400m relay quartet winning the gold to bring down curtains with a bang on the penultimate day of the competitions.

India emerged from the track and field events with five gold, two silver and four bronze medals, one of their best efforts in Asian Games history, though below their performance in 2002 Busan Asian Games where they had a 7-6-5 medal haul. Having started their campaign with a golden double in the women's 10,000m and 3,000m steeplechase through Preeja Sreedharan and Sudha Singh on the first day, the 4x400m relay team of Manjeet Kaur, Sini Jose, AC Ashwini and Mandeep Kaur ended the campaign by clinching the gold in 3 minutes, 29.02 secs at the Aoti Main Stadium.

Mandeep staved off a determined challenge from Kazakhstan's last runner Olga Tereshkova, the individual 400m gold medalist, to finish strongly after her teammates Sini and Ashwini, the 400m hurdles gold medalist, had given India a sizeable lead from the second stage of the race. Kazakhstan, with two 40m individual medalists running for them, were edged out to the second spot despite clocking a national best time of 3:30.03 while hosts China took the bronze in 3:30.89.

Preeja, however, could only get a silver despite making a great effort to catch Bahrain's eventual gold winner Mimi Belete in the women's 5000m while compatriot Kavita Raut got the bronze as India won one gold, a silver and a bronze from the last day action for the country.No Indian is competing in the men's and women's marathon, the last athletics event to be held tomorrow. Preeja who led a 1-2 of Indians with Kavita in the women's 10,000m on day one, was in the lead bunch of six runners led by Japan's Kayoko Furushi, silver medalist in 2006 Doha Games, along with her teammate as the two kept up the challenge with easy strides.

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