The last gold India won was also the easiest.
So easy that, for the final penalty corner, the Indian hockey team had just two players standing on top of Malaysia’s D. And even then, Harmanpreet Singh swept into the net. No elaborate variation, no crowding of the circle. Just two players, one set piece and a gold medal that was never really in doubt.
The 5-1 win was an unfussy ending to an extraordinarily complicated fortnight.
For 12 days, India had managed only 10 gold medals. Then, with the Asian Games running out of hours, the medals began to pile up. Six golds on Friday. Five more on Saturday.
India finished with 21 golds, 27 silvers and 37 bronzes — 85 medals in all — and, perhaps most significantly, pipped Uzbekistan to retain the fourth place it had earned in the last edition. The only rider is an unlikely gold for Uzbekistan in equestrian on Sunday. However, India finished 22 medals short overall compared to the 2023 campaign. Both India and Uzbekistan finished with 21 golds, but India’s two extra silvers made the difference.
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The final ranking, though, barely captures the suddenness of the turnaround.
On Saturday morning, recurve archer Kumkum Mohod was shooting arrows in a contest that felt like a metaphor for India’s Games. The 17-year-old had spent the week helping end South Korea’s long reign in the women’s recurve team event. Now, in the individual final, she found herself twice behind Oh Yejin. Twice she dragged herself level. With the title coming down to the final arrows, Oh shot an eight. Kumkum shot a 10. Gold.
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A few hours later, golfer Pranavi Urs nearly threw away a three-stroke advantage with a triple bogey on the third hole. The sort of mistake that can unravel a final round. Instead, she responded with birdies on the sixth, 10th and 13th, then held on to win India’s first women’s individual Asian Games golf gold.
India’s Pranavi Urs celebrates after winning the women’s individual stroke play gold medal and women’s team silver medal with Aditi Ashok and Diksha Dagar. (Reuters)
“I think I purely did it for my parents,” Urs said, as her mother and father watched her stave off the pressure. “They’re here this week and it was always my mum’s dream to have me represent the country and win, and then the national anthem and stuff. That was her Bollywood style, typical Bollywood mum. She wanted all that.”
Paris Olympics bronze medallist Aman Sehrawat’s gold was harder still. He led North Korea’s Han Chong-Song 6-1 in the 57 kg wrestling final, only for the world champion to claw his way back and move 7-6 ahead. Aman, who kept the Asian Games gold as his phone wallpaper, had spent much of the bout defending his left leg. Now, he had a match to rescue. He scored four unanswered points in the second period and walked away an Asian Games champion.
Different sports. Different circumstances. The same late refusal to let a Games that had been drifting away end quietly.
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Asian Games Final: India beat Pakistan to clinch their second successive gold medal. (CREIMAS)
Cricket added its own drama. Abhishek Sharma’s 61 and Tilak Varma’s unbeaten 51 took India to 211 against Pakistan in the men’s final. Pakistan got close but fell 19 runs short. It was India’s second straight men’s Asian Games cricket gold, completing the gold-medal double after the women’s team had won earlier.
And then there was hockey, where the symbolism was impossible to miss.
A year that had contained plenty of turbulence — on and off the field — had left the men needing to find a way back into the Olympic cycle. They nearly stumbled against Pakistan in the semifinal, surviving only through a late winner. Against Malaysia, there was no such drama. India won 5-1, defended its Asian Games title and secured direct qualification for Los Angeles 2028.
The 21st gold therefore belonged to the sport that has long carried the weight of Indian expectations. But the 20 before it tell a more interesting story.
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India’s Aman Sehrawat celebrates with the gold medal after winning the men’s freestyle 57kg gold medal bout. (Photo: REUTERS)
This was not a Games rescued by one sport, one athlete or one golden generation. It was a late avalanche, after athletics, badminton and shooting underachieved compared to the previous edition. Archers who toppled a dynasty, a golfer who survived her own collapse, a wrestler who recovered from one, cricketers who handled Pakistan, hockey players who finished the job.
“That’s a big relief for us because how the World Cup went, it was really hard mentally and physically,” hockey team vice-captain Hardik Singh said. “(We) stood up at the Asian Games, and we fought in every match. It shows our character, and that’s how we are. We want to start strong and finish stronger.”
For nearly two weeks, India had looked like a contingent waiting for its Games to begin. Then, suddenly, it did. Ten golds became 21 in 48 hours. And fourth place, which had seemed to be slipping away, was India’s again.
