India's Best-Ever Asian Games
India ended the Asian Games 2018 with a total of 69 medals. They won 15 gold, 24 silver and 30 bronze medals. This is India’s best-ever performance at the Asian Games.
The previous best performance was at the 2010 Guangzhou Asain Games where India won 65 medals – 14 gold, 17 silver and 34 bronze medals.
Two gold medals were added to the medal tally on the penultimate day of the 2018 Asian Games with 22-year-old boxer Amit Panghal and 60-year-old bridge player Pranab Bardhan with 56-year-old Shibhnath Sarkar finishing on top of the podium.
Panghal out-punched reigning Olympics and Asian Champion Hasanboy Dusmatov 3-2 to bag India’s only boxing gold medal of the games. And just when he got on the podium to receive his medal, Pranab and Shibhnath closed out the bridge final, amassing 384 points to bag the second gold of the day.
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69. Indian Men's Hockey Team Clinch Bronze
The Indian men’s hockey team beat Pakistan 2-1 to win a bronze medal at the Asian Games.
Akashdeep Singh scored a brilliant field goal in the third minute while Harmanpreet Singh extended India's advantage in the 50th minute off a penalty corner.
Muhammad Atiq increased the heart rate of Indian fans reducing the margin in the 52nd minute from a counter-attack.
However, the Indians didn't repeat the same mistake which they committed against Malaysia in the semi-finals and managed to hold on to the lead to redeem some pride.
68. Women's Squash Team Settles for Silver
The Indian women’s squash team comprising Joshna Chinappa, Dipika Pallikal Karthik and Sunayna Kuruvilla has settled for silver after losing the final of the team event to Hong Kong. This was their second straight silver after they lost the final in 2014 to Malaysia.
Sunayna Kuruvilla and India number one Joshna Chinappa lost their matches as the team suffered its second defeat to Hong Kong in a space of three days, having lost to the second seeds in the final fixture of the pool stage as well.
The silver now ends India’s squash campaign at the Asian Games with a total haul of five medals overall including the men's team bronze and three bronze medals in the individual events.
66. Amit Panghal Clinches Gold
Amit Panghal became only the eighth Indian boxer ever to claim a gold medal at the Asian Games when he beat the much favoured Olympic and Asian champion Hasanboy Dusmatov in the final.
The 22-year-old Armyman, the only Indian to make the finals, prevailed 3-2 against the more fancied Dusmatov, who had beaten him in a split verdict in last year's world championships.
The win marks the highest point in Amit's meteoric rise to the top, starting with an Asian Championships bronze last year. A world quarter-finalist, Amit claimed a silver in the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
67. Historic Gold in Bridge
60-year-old Pranab Bardhan and 56-year-old Shibhnath Sarkar bagged India’s first-ever gold in bridge, scoring 384 points to win the men’s pairs event.
The Chinese pair of Lixin Yang and Gang Chen won the silver with a score of 378 and the Indonesian combination of Henky Lasut and Freddy Eddy Manoppo bagged the bronze scoring 374.