Maiden medal wins at Asian Games: These champs have made India proud at the sporting event

This was the track and field athlete’s debut at the Asian Games, and he was also the flag bearer at the opening ceremony. The almost 21-year-old sportsman from Haryana became the first Indian to win gold in this category. He cleared a distance of 88.06m and broke his own record of 86.47m at 2018 Commonwealth Games where he had secured the same spot. Like Milkha Singh, he was a winner at both in the same year.

No medals for guessing that she is related to Geeta Phogat and Babita Kumari. The wrestlers’ cousin (she is their father Mahavir Phogat’s younger brother Rajpal’s daughter) became the first Indian woman to gain the topmost position in the freestyle 50 kg segment. She is also the first Indian woman wrestler to win gold in Commonwealth Games.

The Kolhapuri sportswoman is the first Indian female to clinch the yellow metal in the pistol event. In the thrilling match, she had to undergo two shoot-offs where she defeated Thailand’s Naphaswan Yangpaiboon by shooting three to the latter’s two. 

It was the first senior tournament for the 16-year-old Saurabh Chaudhary and he has become a big shot! The young gun defeated the likes of 42-year-old Japanese legend Tomoyuki Matsuda and Korean Jin Jongoh, 38, who is a four-time Olympic gold medallist. 

The shuttlers are the first-ever from the nation to reach the finals and semi-finals respectively in women’s singles. While Saina broke the dry spell after Syed Modi won the first medal in singles in 1982, the-23-year-old Hyderabad player, Sindhu, clinched silver after losing to World No 1 Tai Tzu Ying from Taipei.

The ‘standing judo’ is also a kind of wrestling indigenous to Central Asia, where a towel is used to hold the opponent and throw them off their feet. This year, it was held at the Games for the first time. The 19-year-old Neb Sarai (a village in Delhi) resident, Pincky, grabbed a silver as she lost to Uzbekistani player Gulnor Sulaymanova while the Belgaum girl, Malaprabha bagged a bronze.

Kick volleyball (not to confused with footvolley) has been included in Asiad since 1990. The men’s team nicked a bronze, which is the first medal in this sport for India. Rupesh Sunar, Dipesh Jung Thapa, Govinda Magar, Sanjeet Dhimal and Rabin Bhattarai beat Nepal in the competition.

Much like Kurash, it was the initiation for this section, too. And quite an opening for India as the four-member squad — Hima Das, MR Poovamma, Mohammed Anas, and Arokia Rajiv — ended up victorious with a silver medal finishing at 3:15.71, losing to Bahrain.

The group comprising G Sathiyan, Achanta Sharath Kamal and A Amalraj brought home a historic bronze medal. They lost 0-3 to South Korea in the semifinal on Tuesday. They defeated the giants Japan 3-1, which has 20 medals so far since the sport was introduced in the Games in 1958.