Asian Games: Slimmer Indian contingent produces less gold but better medal return – in numbers

Players of gold medalist India during the medal ceremony for the men’s hockey event. (PTI Photo) In late August, the sports ministry said the qualification criteria for the Asian Games, introduced a year ago, would not change despite the criticism. “The idea from the very beginning was to send a lean contingent. The criteria was announced a year ago and everyone had time to figure it out and qualify,” a sports ministry source told TimesofIndia.com at the time. It has been made clear that the aim is to have a contingent of only realistic medal contenders to make the trip to Aichi-Nagoya.“Let’s take an example. If someone has to run under 10 seconds to be a medal contender in the 100m, should we send an athlete who runs 15 seconds? We have set the criteria that if the athlete is in the top six in Asia, we will select him, otherwise not. That is what we followed,” the source said.The tennis team went from 12 to 7. Several judokas and wushu athletes were removed from the original roster. Of the 44 players in 2022, no footballers were sent this time. There was also no room for 20 hoopers and 16 handball players.India has sent a contingent of 661 athletes to the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou. Three years later, the last contingent to travel to Japan was limited to 495 athletes. After 14 days of competition, India has bagged 21 gold, 27 silver and 37 bronze medals for a total of 85 medals. In comparison, India won 106 medals (28 gold, 38 silver and 40 bronze) in China.With the contingent size down by 25.1%, golds dropped by almost the same number (25%) and medals by 19.8%. India won 16 medals for every 100 athletes in Hangzhou. In Aichi-Nagoya, this number increased to 17.2%, an improvement of about 7.3%.Stripped down to the bare bones, India won 0.172 medals per athlete in Nagoya compared to 0.160 in Hangzhou. Gold on the athlete was essentially unchanged at around 0.042. Roughly every sent athlete is counted, including those who did not win a medal. At the same time, such large teams as cricket (30 athletes), hockey (40) and kabaddi (24) make up the only medal in the discipline.So while India fell short of its record haul of 106 medals, its smaller contingent produced a slightly better medal haul per athlete.The trickier part of the comparison comes when gold medals are thrown into the mix.India’s gold medal tally dropped from 28 to 21, a 25% drop – exactly in line with the reduction in contingent size. So the gold medal yield was virtually unchanged: 4.24 gold per 100 athletes in Hangzhou and 4.24 in Aichi-Nagoya.This suggests that the smaller contingent was not in itself the reason for the fall in Indian gold. Rather, the composition of the medal draw has changed.

Where did the gold go?

India’s gold for 2022 came mainly from three sports: shooting (seven), athletics (six) and archery (five), accounting for 18 out of 28 (64%). In Nagoya, archery again produced five, but shooting three and athletics one. Boxing, who won no gold in Hangzhou, won three and won the match two to none. Golf added a golden favor to Pranavi Urs. Squash, which won two golds in 2022, failed to win one despite Anahat Singh’s expectations, although the five-medal tally remained unchanged.Team sports bore a greater burden. Cricket, hockey and kabaddi won six of India’s 21 gold medals, compared to five of 28. India completed the double title in all three. In 2022, hockey produced one gold and one bronze.The athletics podium has moved down a notch. In 2022, it returned six gold, 14 silver and nine bronze. Now, despite a massive contingent of over 75 members, it has produced one gold, nine silver and 14 bronze.

Behind the decline is shooting, athletics

The biggest reason for the drop in gold medals was shooting (4) and athletics (5). Squash (2), badminton (1), tennis (1) and equestrian (1) also saw a decline in the yellow metal. In fact, tennis did not produce a medal at all – the first time in 40 years.In Hangzhou, shooting and athletics were the two biggest contributors to India’s gold medal tally with seven and six gold medals respectively. Together they accounted for 13 of India’s 28 golds. In Aichi-Nagoya, this combined figure collapsed to four. Shooting contributed three golds, athletics one. Therefore, India lost nine gold medals from these two sports alone.A sub-par show from the athletes was further darkened with the withdrawal of 100m hurdler Jyothi Yarraji and triple jumper Praveen Chithravel. Both the national record holders missed the finals of India’s track and field series in the preliminaries of the Asian Games, citing knee stress and a calf muscle strain.When it came to the Asian Games, Yarraji withdrew from the heats of the first round of the women’s 100m hurdles after “feeling pain” during warm-ups in rainy weather.Chithravel, meanwhile, attempted his first jump but was unable to complete it as he left the competition area clutching his calf in obvious pain. He was later taken away in a wheelchair. The men’s 400 m hurdler Yashas P. also pulled out after the start of his heats.He comes to the shooters.India’s haul of 15 medals in 2026 (3 gold, 8 silver and 4 bronze) represented a 32% drop in total medals compared to 22 in the previous continental stretch. The gold catch saw a 57% hit. And further, seven were team medals, five individual and three in mixed team competitions.They won gold medals in one individual event (Neeru Dhanda in women’s trap) and two mixed team events (Neeru and Kynan Chenai in mixed trap and Suruchi Phogat and Kamaljeet in mixed 10m air pistol).

A late surge took India to 85 medals and fourth place

If the final medal tally tells one story, the day’s trajectory tells another. In the first 12 days of the competition, India won 10 gold medals in Aichi-Nagoya. In Hangzhou, India has already accumulated 21 golds by the same point.Then came the late surge in Japan.India won 11 gold medals in the last two days of their 2026 campaign – six on Day 13 and five on Day 14. That means 52.4% of India’s entire gold haul came in the last two days. The equivalent figure in Hangzhou was 25%: seven of India’s 28 golds came in the last two days.India had 13 golds till Day 8 in Hangzhou. She had four at the same stage in Aichi-Nagoya. By the 11th, the difference was still eight gold — 18 to 10.But the last section changed the picture dramatically. India collected 18 golds on the 13th and 14th in the two editions combined, but the distribution was very different: seven in Hangzhou and 11 in Aichi-Nagoya.On October 2, the women’s recurve team of Ankita Bhakat, Kirti Sharma and Kumkum Mohod took gold. Like boxer Lovlina Borgohain on her birthday. Parveen Hooda also joined the party along with wrestler Sujeet Kalkal’s remarkable comeback, boxer Ankush Panghal’s drought-ending gold and the women’s hockey team’s triumph over China to book a place at LA 2028.A day later, archer Kumkum Mohod, golfer Pranavi Urs, wrestler Aman Sehrawat, men’s cricket team and men’s hockey team gave the country plenty to celebrate with golden flowers.

The overall medal gap never closed

The same late surge was visible in the medal total, but it was not enough to close the gap with Hangzhou.After the first day, India had five medals in Hangzhou and two in Aichi-Nagoya.By the fourth day, the gap had increased to 10 medals.It was 16 on the eighth day.By Day 11, Hangzhou’s cumulative tally stood at 80 medals compared to Aichi-Nagoya’s 60 – a difference of 20 medals.India narrowed this deficit slightly over the next two days, reaching 76 medals against Hangzhou’s 94 after the 13th day.But on the final day he added nine medals in Aichi-Nagoya and 12 in Hangzhou, leaving the final margin at 21.