Asian Games 2018: India Pins Hopes On Women Athletes To Bring Glory Back Home

At the 1970 Asian Games held in Bangkok, Kamaljeet Sandhu created history, becoming the first Indian woman to win a gold medal when she topped the field in the 400m. This was a significant achievement because no Indian woman had climbed to the top of the podium in the previous four editions of the continental competition.

The glass ceiling broken, it took another 16 years for India's women to truly come into their own at the Asiad. The legendary sprinter PT Usha left everyone awestruck in Seoul 1986, winning four of India's overall five gold medals.

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In the years that followed, India's women steadily increased their share in the overall medals tally, so much so, they have contributed 10 of the 25 gold medals that India won in the previous two editions held in Incheon in 2014 and Guangzhou in 2010. In fact, the 2002 Busan Games saw Indian women contribute six of the 11 gold medals.

These are numbers that will stand the current contingent in good stead when they travel to Jakarta and Palembang in Indonesia for the 18th Asian Games, starting on Saturday.

India will be hoping to better the overall tally they managed in Incheon, winning a total of 57 medals of which 11 were gold, 9 silver and 37 bronze; and rest assured, there will be enormous expectations from the country's women athletes.

The young Hima Das will be tracked closely as she will be back in action only weeks after creating history at the IAAF World Under-20 Championships in Tampere, Finland where she won gold in the 400m, clocking 51.46 seconds. Bahrain's Kemi Adekoya clocked an Asiad record of 51.11 sec in Incheon, so Das will have to probably better the effort she managed on July 12, in order to win gold.

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Das is also expected to compete in 4x400 relay squad besides featuring in the 200m and it will be interesting to see how she fares in the company of compatriot Dutee Chand, who will also be running the 100m.

Another athletics discipline that has been richly rewarding for India over the years is the women's 4x400m relay, and it will be interesting to see whether the team of MR Poovamma, Saritaben Gaikwad, Sonia Vaishya, Vijayakumari, VK Vismaya and Jisna Matthew can match the feat of their predecessors.

Veteran Seema Punia will be eager to defend her discus throw title and will be buoyed by the fact that she won silver at the Commonwealth Games in April.

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Badminton fans will be training their eyes on the duo of Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu, and there will be intense focus on whether they can return with medals, given the exceptional quality of players they will be lining up against over the course of two weeks.

Like previous years, there is plenty of hope from shooting, and it will be fascinating to see how the 16-year-old Manu Bhaker performs in Palembang. She will be competing in the 10m air pistol, 25m pistol and 10m air pistol mixed events. She won gold in 10m air pistol at the Gold Coast CWG, but the Asian Games are a different ball game altogether. Another ace shooter, Heena Sidhu, who will be competing in the 10m air pistol, will be aiming to improve on her tally of two medals in team events at the Games.

Dipa Karmakar will be leading the Indian charge in the gymnastics event. With a career-threatening knee injury ruling her out of the Gold Coast CWG, Dipa, who had finished a creditable fourth at the Rio Olympics, will be looking to win India's first medal in the women's gymnastics event at the Asiad. Dipa is the first Indian woman gymnast to win a gold at the Commonwealth Games, clinching a bronze at 2014 Glasgow Games.

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Archer Deepika Kumari, who won gold at the World Cup in Salt Lake City (USA) in June, will be leading the women's charge, and given the quality of competition, a medal of any hue should be a welcome addition to her cabinet. As far as kabaddi is concerned, it is difficult to look beyond India who have traditionally dominated the discipline, so anything short of gold will count for a major upset.

The women's hockey team, which bowed out in the quarterfinals of the recently concluded World Cup, looks good enough to improve on their bronze-medal winning performance in the previous edition, but they will have to be at their best to challenge the might of South Korea and China.

In wrestling, India will pin its hopes on Rio Games bronze medallist Sakshi Malik and Incheon Asiad bronze medallist Vinesh Phogat.

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Did You Know?

2018 Asian Games will be the first in history to be hosted by two cities - Jakarta and Palembang. Jakarta is hosting the Games for the second time in history. The 1962 Games which Jakarta hosted previously was subject to political controversies as Indonesian government refused to issue visas to the delegations from Israel and Taiwan. It turned out that Indonesia succumbed to the pressure from Arab nations and China to deny visa to both Israel and Taiwanese delegates. This was against the rules of Asian Games Federation.

Indians Who Have Held Asian Records For Long Periods: Sunita Rani completed the 1500m in 4:06.03m to set an Asian Games record in 2002 Busan Games held in South Korea. Even after 16 years, the record stands

Longest Standing Asian Records: Syria's Ghada Shouaa grabbed 6360 pts in Heptathlon in the 12th Asian Games held in Hiroshima in 1994 to set a Games record which is still unbroken. Interestingly, Hiroshima Games was Shouaa's only Asian Games as injuries forced her to retire from athletics at the age of 27.