They set out with the dream of amassing a century of medals at this edition of the Asian Games, and they realized it in style. The Indian athletes had already come good on their promise of returning with the country's biggest-ever medal haul on Wednesday, but on Saturday morning, they achieved a historic three-figure mark at the Hanzghou Asian Games. Considering that the previous best was 70 medals at the 2018 Jakarta Games, a 100-plus medal tally seemed a lofty aim to many, but it was converted to reality well before the end of day's play. India got to the century with a thrilling gold medal win by the women's kabaddi team, who beat Chinese Taipei 26-25 in the final and made amends for their 34-34 draw against the same team in the group stage. (Live Blog | Medal Tally | Schedule | Streaming | Full Coverage)
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That India will end with at least 100 medals was confirmed on Friday evening itself, as the Indian contingent ended Day 13 with 95 medals to its name and six more podium finishes assured. Saturday morning saw those podium finishes coming to fruition and the Indian compound archers capping off their golden run in this edition with four medals — two of them gold.
Aditi Gopichand Swami started the day with a bronze medal in individual women's compound archery, and Jyothi Surekha Vennam soon tacked a glittering gold on top of that with a superlative performance in the final. Their men's counterparts then followed suit with a heartwarming one-two finish, as the young Ojas Deotale pipped his senior teammate Abhishek Verma to the gold.
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The honour of bagging India's 100th medal came to the women's kabaddi team, which embraced it with open arms and a golden performance against tricky opponents Chinese Taipei. The Indian team erupted in tear-soaked joy after the nailbiting victory, not just for delivering the best result but also for taking the country to the much-anticipated mark.
India had won 70 medals in the previous edition of the Asian Games in Indonesia, where the country's athletes won 16 gold, 23 silver and 31 bronze medals to record what was their best performance then. However, it did not take long for the 655-strong Indian contingent at the 2023 Asiad to surpass that.
Riding on a splendid show by the shooters (22 medals) and track and field athletes (29 medals), India had already crossed the 70-medal mark on Wednesday. History was created then and there. On Saturday, the Indians simply rewrote it.
