Produced by: Hitansh Gaur
Designed by: Manoj Kumar
Some sporting events at the 19th Edition of Asian Games began on September 19 in China’s Hangzhou. At Asian Games 2023, athletes will compete in 61 disciplines in events that will be played in 56 venues and go on until October 8. A total of 481 gold medals will be up for grabs.
At the Asian Games 2023, the 655-member Indian contingent will look to cross their best-ever performance from 2018. Indian athletes will compete in 41 out of 61 disciplines.
Though the official games will begin from September 23, the competition for football, beach volleyball, volleyball and cricket began on September 19. India began its football campaign against China, where the host nation beat India 5-1 in the Group A match.
For the first time, both the Men’s and Women’s cricket teams of India will compete in the Asian Games. Both cricket teams of India have been directly sent to the quarter final of the competition along with the teams of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. The ‘Men In Blue’ will begin their campaign on October 3.
Five Olympic medalists of India have gone to China including ‘Badminton Queen’ PV Sindhu, boxer Lovlina Borgohain, wrestler Bajrang Punia, weightlifter Mirabai Chanu and India’s ‘Golden Boy’ Neeraj Chopra.
India has sent 68 athletes for the track and field events led by the current Javelin world champion, Neeraj Chopra. The 25-year-old won the gold medal in the 2018 Asian Games held in Jakarta.
The 19-member badminton team of India is led by P V Sindhu and includes players like HS Prannoy and Lakshya Sen, champions of Commonwealth Games. The duo also won bronze at the BWF World Championships last month. Badminton will begin on September 28 with the final match scheduled on October 7.
Tokyo Olympics 2020 Silver medalist, Mirabai Chanu will be making her Asian Games debut on September 30 in the 49 kg category. Bajrang Punia, who won the Bronze at Tokyo Olympics, will be defending his gold medal from the 2018 Asian Games in the 65 kg freestyle wrestling on October 6.
The boxing event in Hangzhou will act as a qualifying round for next year’s Paris Olympics. The two-time reigning champion Nikhat Zareen will begin her campaign for the same on September 24 in the 50 kg category while Lovlina Borgohain will begin her campaign on September 26 in 75 kg. The boxing event will end on October 6.
Similar to boxing, the hockey event is also a qualifying round for next year’s Olympics. India’s Men Hockey Team will begin their campaign on September 22 as the men’s event will begin a day before the official opening ceremony. Women’s team will be in action from September 25 as both Indian teams will try to get an early entry into the Paris Olympics.
Another high-profile player from India at Asian Games 2023 is the 18-year-old Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa, who won the hearts of the country after an amazing performance in this year’s World Chess championship held in Baku, Azerbaijan. Praggnanandhaa finished second in the tournament after losing to the current World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen in a tiebreaker for the championship.
Some other prominent athletes from India include hurdler Jyothi Yarraji, long jumper Murali Sreeshankar, steeplechaser Avinash Sable, former Asian champion boxer Shiva Thapa, table tennis duo Manika Batra and Sharath Kamal.