Asian Games 2018: Breaking barriers, making history

If one looks at the performance of Indian athletes at the recently concluded Asian Games in Jakarta, where track and field events helped India to produce history’s best performance in the Games winning 69 medals with 15 golds, one would say that time has probably come where these unknown names could well become an household names if they perform half of what they did in past few days in Tokyo’s 2020 Olympic Games.

India finally won 7 gold, 10 silver and 2 bronze medals in track and field this time around, which is second to 1951 edition at home in Delhi where we clinched 10 gold, 12 silver and 12 bronze being hosted by capital city of Delhi.

Athletics also helped India hit an all-time Asiad high in the total medal count (69), beating the previous best of 65 at the 2010 Guangzhou Games.

If Manjit Singh’s gold in 800 metres was a big surprise, after being trailing at fourth place for most of the race, then Neeraj Chopra’s heroics was well with in the expectations. The 20-year-old javelin thrower from Haryana has been remarkable in his journey so far, which began with the U-20 World Championship title.

Regardless to say that now Neeraj possesses Asian Championships, the Commonwealth Games apart from this new Asian Games titles in his showcase window. His throw of 88.06m in Jakarta has made him first ever Indian to do so, and the impossible looking 90m mark is looking a near possibility in near future as he is preparing for the Golden League.

African challenge

Indian shot putter Tajinder Pal Singh or heptathlete Swapna Barman, despite severe toothache, along with the women’s 4x400m relay team had not just had to overcome the Chinese wall but were up against the African-origin athletes from Qatar and Bahrain.

Triple jumper Arpinder Singh was probably the lone one sure shot winner in the absence of any great competition from powerhouse China.

Just go back in your memory and see how many medals Indians were denied by these African-born athletes from middle east countries. Dharun or sprinter Dutee Chand could well have all have had gold medals in their kitty and 19 medals could well have swelled to much more in the end.

Good news for India was that most of the athletes came out winners displaying their career best timings or throws. Quartermilers Muhammed Anas and Hima Das -- who became first Indian woman to go below 51-second mark in 400m hurdles --- are just few examples in this list.

But Games biggest surprise was Manjit’s gold in the 800m. Having been under Jinson Johnson’s shadow for most of his career so far, Manjit pulled off one of the biggest upset in track and field event. It was such a rare occasion when two Indians were standing one-two in the podium at the Asiad.

And one man who was not at all surprised by Manjit’s heroics was Jinson himself. “I am not surprised at all that Manjit won the gold as there is no big difference in timing between him and me. In the past few years, in the National Championships, he has been my main competitor. I knew if I can win, he (Manjit) can also win,” Jinson said after the medal ceremony in Jakarta.

Manjit ran a personal best of 1:46.15 while Jinson clocked 1:46.35. This probably was the reason why Jinson didn’t give an inch space during his 1500m race by leading from start to finish. In the process, Jinson bettered the 2016 Rio Olympics gold-winning timing clocking 3 minute 44:72 seconds.

Toothache, what?

At 21, heptathlete Swapna Barman has become biggest story of her country.

She became not just the first ever Indian woman to win a heptathlon gold at the Asian Games, considered to be one of the most difficult track and field events, but the way she was competing with bandage around her face made her a bigger hero than others.

Swapna entered the stadium with a heavily taped jaw and chin to reduce the toothache. And anyone knowing her knows how overcoming pain and adversity has become part of this rickshaw-puller daughter from Bengal’s Jalpaiguri district.

Having born six toes on each foot, she had to run with either bare foot or with ordinary shoes in the absence of scarcity of funds throughout her career. That’s the reason she had to squeezed her six toes into an ordinary shoe meant to manage the five, instead. For anyone who has any illusions about Heptathlon, where an athletes is tested to the limits of his endurance and stamina, Swapna’s strong running and equally fine throwing and jumping efforts made her stand tall in the field of world class athletes.And not to discount that every landing and jumping was giving her unbearable pain.

With now stellar performance under her belt, this girl from poor background hopes that some sponsor will come to her rescue and a custom made shoes as per her needs would be a reality soon. 

Duty-bound, Dutee

When pulled down and thrown out by system, remember Dutee Chand.

After being dumped out of 2014 Commonwealth Games for failing hormone test, she had to display her killing instincts outside the track field to fight for justice in the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The court quashed her suspension and questioned the validity of so-called gender tests around naturally high testosterone levels in female athletes.

Here this daughter of weavers from Odisha was back again by winning silver in both 100m and 200m sprints. Her redemption has given hope to many of such athletes around the world fighting against such cruel rules.