Asian games 2018 : First look at India's expectations from Jakarta Palembang 2018
The 18th edition of Asian games will be jointly hosted by Jakarta, Indonesian capital and Palembang, the capital of South Sumatra province from 18th August 2018 and action will continue for the next 15 days.
With just over 2 months remaining for the quadrennial event, here we take a look at some of the sports where India must be looking for a rich medal haul as it looks to continue its fine run from Gold Coast Commonwealth games.
With India gradually announcing its squad across different sports, achieving a 4th place finish at this edition of Asian games would be really an ambitious target considering the might of Kazakhstan and Iran at the Asian level. Posing some serious threats for the top 3 sporting nations of this continent - China, Japan and South Korea would be too much to ask for.
For achieving this target, India must be hoping that the Athletics, Kabaddi, Boxing, Shooting and Tennis contingent delivers with high hopes pinned on Wrestling, Archery, Squash, Badminton and Field Hockey too.
Although it is difficult to predict medal hopes explicitly as the complete contingent has not yet been announced but still we can take a shallow look at the no. of medals we can expect across these sports. In Athletics, India must be looking forward to match its 2010 Asiad haul where it won 12 medals including 5 gold medals. In 2014, India won one more medal but there were just two golds out of those 13 medals.
Iran and some other countries may have grown relatively stronger in Kabaddi but India will be ready to continue it's domination in the sport where it has won all gold medals on offer since the inclusion in Beijing,1990. The Indian shooters would certainly try to compensate the drastic decrease in the no of gold medals on offer with their brilliant performance although they will face stiff challenge from the likes of Korea and China.
India has announced a strong squad in Tennis as well as Squash with Leander Paes back in the fold as an attempt to leave no stone unturned in it's bid to better it's performance from previous editions. In Archery, it will be really difficult to do well under the presence of mighty Koreans although the archers must be up for the challenge. The competition in wrestling would be much stiffer than in CWG although India would be expecting at least one gold medal from the wrestling arena. In Incheon, Yogeshwar dutt won a gold medal in wrestling for India after a gap of 28 years.
India must be looking for a repeat of 2010 performance in boxing as well where it won 9 medals including two gold medals. In field hockey, nothing less than a gold is expected from the men's side although there will be a fierce competition in the presence of arch rivals Pakistan, Malaysia,Korea and Japan. Among the remaining sports, India must do well in Badminton, Judo, Golf and Rowing if it wants to leave a mark on the Indonesian soil.