Author: Rohan Chowdhury

The India-Pakistan rivalry is always highly anticipated in any sport, and the standout performers in these clashes often become fan favorites. The stakes were particularly high in Hangzhou when the Indian Men’s Squash team faced their arch-rivals in the gold-medal match. This was especially significant as they had lost to Pakistan a few days earlier. The match was tied at 1-1 after two games, and it all came down to Abhay Singh, the 25-year-old from Chennai, in the decisive match. After a closely contested battle with his Pakistani counterpart, the third game went down to the wire, and Abhay secured…

The recently concluded Asian Games in Hangzhou marked India’s most successful campaign in the history of the competition. Although they went to the Games with a slogan of ‘Iss Bar Sau Paar’, bettering the previous best haul of 70 medals with 107 exceeded expectations. In all, Indian athletes claimed 28 gold, 38 silver, and 41 bronze medals. Looking forward to Hangzhou once more, the Asian Para Games will be held from October 22 to 28. This is the fourth edition of the Para Games, which started in another Chinese city — Guangzhou — in 2010. Before Guangzhou 2010, it was…

Rohan Chowdhury in Hangzhou One final, and two prizes were up for grabs for the Indian men’s hockey team – a gold medal and a ticket to the Paris Olympics in 2024. The team had been in dominant form since the beginning of the Asian Games with a total of 53 goals scored, and only 8 conceded. India could have faced the home side in the final, but Japan defeated China 3-2 in the semi-finals to reach the gold medal match at Gongshu Sports Canal Stadium. The first ten minutes of the summit clash were evenly contested with not much…

Rohan Chowdhury in Hangzhou The 70-medals tally from Jakarta 2018 was matched by the 35km walking team with a bronze, early on Wednesday morning, and later surpassed by the mixed compound archery team of Jyothi Surekha and Ojas Deotale, who bagged the first archery gold for India in this Asian Games. But the date, October 4, 2023, will also be special for some unique and memorable incidents at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre Stadium, the Athletics venue for the Games. It was the javelin throw, Neeraj Chopra’s event and, in recent times, whenever that man has stepped on to the…

In a fantastic final, Jyothi Surekha Vennam and Ojas Deotale prevailed over Korea to win India the mixed archery gold medal. Rohan Chowdhury caught up with them soon after. Enjoy this candid conversation. Rohan- First thoughts on this victory and how were the conditions? Jyothi: Conditions were good and we had in our minds to give our best and we did that and bagged the gold. We are absolutely delighted to win the first gold in archery in these Games. Rohan- Ojas this was your first Asian Games. How special was it to win the gold and did you have…

Parul Chaudhary ran into the history books with one of the most epic final laps in the history of Indian athletics. Judged on personal bests, Parul was no match for a handful of African runners now competing under other flags. But in a slow and tactical women’s 5000m run in oppressive humidity, she ran an unbelievable final 100m to reel in Japan’s Ririka Hironaka, who looked to have the race won when she streaked away down the back straight. Hironaka was one of three women in the field who had run the distance in less than 15 minutes. Of those,…

Rohan Chowdhury in Hangzhou A bright, sunny and windy day at the Westlake Golf Course, where India were in contention for a gold medal in the women’s individual golf event. Aditi Ashok made millions wake up at 5am in the morning during Tokyo 2020, but missed a podium finish by a whisker. It was Aditi in action again on the final day of the individual event, where she started off with a seven-stroke lead over the second-placed golfer from China. From the very beginning of the day, Aditi didn’t seem at her very best with a few ‘bad swings’, in…

Rohan Chowdhury in Hangzhou The round-of-16 clash against Saudi Arabia was India’s most difficult task in this Asian Games campaign. Their senior team were the only ones to defeat Argentina, the world champions, in Qatar, and even with just their Under-23s playing, Saudi Arabia were the far better side on paper at the start of the game. Two expertly taken goals from Mohammed Khalil Maran, a teammate of Cristiano Ronaldo and Sadio Mane at Al-Nassr, emphasised that gulf between the sides, as India’s campaign ended with a fighting, but fairly toothless, display. From the very beginning, Saudi had control, with…

Rohan Chowdhury in Hangzhou After a thumping 16-0 win versus Uzbekistan in the campaign opener, the Indian men’s hockey team administered a similar sort of beating to Singapore in their second game at the Gongshu Sports Centre Park Stadium, China. This time, the scoreline was 16-1, with Singapore’s defence completely overwhelmed in the final three quarters. Right from the start of the match, Craig Fulton’s boys made their intentions clear. Some fierce attacks down the right wing through Mandeep Singh, who combined with Harmanpreet Singh, the skipper, penetrated the Singapore circle quite a few times. The Singapore defence managed to…

Day two of rowing at the Fuyang Water Sport Stadium, and four more medal events for India. On Sunday, the rowing contingent had bagged two silvers and one bronze medal from five events. On Monday, the temperature was much higher, and the rowers were faced with a headwind as well. India’s first medal came in the Men’s Four Final A, where the team bagged a bronze medal with a time of 6:10:81, finishing just behind China, who were timed at 6:10:04. The second medal, and the final one in rowing was also a bronze, won by the Men’s Quadruple Final…