Published: Sep 20, 2014, 12:59 AM (IST)
Edited: Sep 20, 2014, 12:59 AM (IST)
Incheon: Sep 20, 2014
Indian hockey captain Sardar Singh led the country’s Asian Games contingent at the Opening Ceremony held at the Incheon Asiad Main Stadium here Friday. India has sent a 679-member contingent for the 17th Asiad which comprises 516 athletes and 163 coaches and support staff. India will be participating in 28 disciplines as against 35 last time in the 2010 Guangzhou Games. India had won 14 golds, 17 silvers and 34 bronzes to finish sixth at the 16th Asiad four years ago in the Chinese port city Guangzhou.
The 17 th Asian Games, which will be held from September 19th to October 4th 2014 will be held in Incheon, South Korea, which will host an event for the second time in the 21stcentury after Busan played hosts in 2002. The official slogan of the games will be ‘diversity shines here’. Overall, there will be 49 venues and 48 training facilities across the city of Incheon. The administrators have built 10 new stadiums and country have spend around USD 1.6 Billion.
In the 2010 Asian Games, India finished sixth in the medal table with their best ever performance bagging 64 medals including 14 gold at Guangzhou. With India performing well at recently held Commonwealth Games, all eyes would be on the Indian athletes to better their previous best, which came at the 17th Asiad. The Indian side have won in some unknown territories like athletics, their full strengths in form of the wrestlers, boxers and shooters and return of tennis and archery in Asian Games unlike CWG should motivate India to touch higher new heights.
The Asian Games have been dominated by China, who last topped the medal table with 416 total medals including 199 gold. 2014 Asian Games host nation South Korea had finished second with 232 medals including 76 gold. Japan formed the top three of the 2010 Asian Games with 216 total medals. For India, the challenge to topple them looks invincible but bettering their own records is highly possible.
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