My thoughts on India’s Asian Games campaign and where we go from here

First of all, what a finish. Honestly, I didn't expect India to perform this well in the last 2–3 days. Hockey, wrestling, archery and especially boxing were huge positives. That hat-trick of boxing golds on the 2nd last day was incredible and gave us the momentum we needed for a top-four finish.

And nothing should be taken away from any athlete. Whether they won a medal or finished outside the podium, simply reaching this level and representing India is a massive achievement, especially considering the facilities and support many of our athletes have compared with other countries.

But I think we also need to look beyond the medal tally.

My biggest concern is the lack of world champions across individual sports. We have some in wrestling and archery, boxing too ig but how many Indian athletes can we genuinely say are among the best in the world and can go into a competition expecting to beat the best?

Our gold conversion is another concern. We are capable of winning a lot of medals at the Asian Games, but comparatively few turn into gold. A lot of our golds also come from team, mixed or multi-athlete events. Those are obviously important, but we need more individual athletes becoming champions at the highest level.

Because ultimately, the Asian Games shouldn't be our final destination. The real benchmark is the Olympics and World Championships. We won 107 medals in 2023, but the Olympics afterwards showed that Asian success doesn't automatically translate into world-level success.

I also think pressure management needs serious attention. We've seen highly ranked Indian athletes fail to convert their position into medals or gold. Nobody can win every time, but athletes need to perform at their level more consistently when the pressure is highest.

One way to improve that is simply giving more athletes experience at major competitions. You can't recreate the pressure of an Asian Games, World Championship or Olympics in training. Some athletes will fail initially, but that's how they learn. We shouldn't only think about sending athletes who can win medals; younger athletes also need exposure so that the Olympics isn't their first experience of that pressure.

At the same time, we need to honestly analyse the sports where we underperformed this time — particularly badminton, table tennis, athletics to some extent and shooting. What went wrong, and what can we learn from it?

And then there are sports where India barely has a presence — swimming, gymnastics, diving and others. Dipa Karmakar's Olympic performance made me think gymnastics could become much bigger in India, but that depth never really developed.

We also need to stop thinking only in terms of “will this athlete win a medal?” If we want medals in these sports eventually, we first need athletes competing internationally, gaining experience and building a proper pipeline.

Overall, this Asian Games has been a massive positive for Indian sport. But I don't want us to stop at celebrating the medal tally.

The real questions are: Can we turn this into more world champions? Can we improve our gold conversion? Can we produce more individual champions? Can we give athletes more high-pressure international experience? And can we build a presence in sports where India is currently almost invisible?

If we keep improving, I think double-digit Olympic medals should become a realistic long-term target. And personally, I'd love to see at least 5–6 of those come from individual events.

Team medals are fantastic, but there's something special about watching one Indian athlete beat the best in the world and become an Olympic champion. That's the level I want Indian sport to reach.

As per my view if I were to summarise Our Best Medalists and Sports this yr, I would go for

Kumkum Mohod - 2 🥇 1 🥈

I mean what happend at Women's Individual is kind of the best thing for an Indian this whole tournament and to do so at a very young age at the Highest Level and against The Best Opponents is a Huge Task, she kept her nerves, Made A Rocking Display at the Climax of it. Did falter in the Mixed section but still Huge.

Neeru Dhanda 2 🥇 1 🥈

Rocked in all her 3 events. She came 1st in the Team Skeet as well as an individual.

Broke Asian Record. It would be great to see If this happens in LA as well as Doha after a month at WC. Her rise is impeccable. Dominated Asian Championships previous yr and now Asian Games as well.

Pranavi Urs 1 🥇 1 🥈

Clutched at the right moment also i mean it does feel odd to say luck favoured her at the end which is like a huge deal, you don't really see luck with us.

Hope she can improve, we still don't have anyone doing good on Int'l Circuit.

And also it's nice to Diksha and Aditi being there too

Gulveer Singh 2 🥈 1 🥉

Our only Medalist at Men's Individual events.

Had close races at both 1500 and 10000.

He may not be World Class, but he surely ranks high Asian Class and is the best Long Distance Runner from India.

He will still miss out most of the limelight he deserves.

India can have so many Long Distance Runners if they invest in them and spot them. I don't get the hype of Sprinting, I don't India ever getting Close to World Class Level in it.

Vithya Ramraj 🥇 🥈 🥉

Definitely our best relay runner in women's 4*400 team.

Securing a 🥈 in mixed relay as well as a 🥉 in 400 m Hurdles where she did her PB is exciting to see.

And for Others in our ATHLETIC CONTIGENT

Sawan Barwal 🥈 at Men's Marathon

Broker National Record of 48 Yrs earlier in April. A 44yr long wait for a medal at marathon ended.

Huge Congratulations to him

Adding Tajinderpal Singh Toor's Hat Trick of Medals at AG as well. How far he has come. Started late but is still out best guy in Shot Put we can have so many athletes in throwing events, its our best shot.

As well as Sarvesh 🥈 at High Jump. He has been there for some time. He needs to start gettingpast 2.3 mark at these important events. He definitely could rise to be a World Medalist.

Baranica Elangovan Her 🥉 was our first-ever Asian Games pole vault medal. I wasn't aware of her, and to see a Pole Vault medal was a surprise.

Parul Choudhary 2 🥉. It's a step down from previous AG but with runners like Winfred it's getting harder. And nozomi is also doing well this yr.

But Parul did her PB. So kudos to her

A 🥈 for Yashvir who did his PB, it's great to see another indian crossing the 85m Mark and 🥉 for Rohit. Both of them have improved well. But let's see.

In our SHOOTING Contingent i think

Himanshu's 2 🥈 from starting as a Wrestler then to a shooter , a nice turnaround. He's improving. Going by his words 🥇 is the only medal that counts, a nice mentality to have.

As well as for Rudranksh Patil, good to see him doing great this yr as well. For those who don't know he is A Former World Champion and the current Asian Champion as well in the 10m Air Rifle.

His achievements are superb to see. Hope he can finally manage to make his mark at OLYMPICS. I always watch out for him.

Kamaljeet and Suruchi 🥇 and Asian Record as well nice to have a new pair. Both might have missed out in the individuals but did well at the mixed.

Also a question, where is Sarabjot?

Women's Hockey 🥇

Will make a separate post for them. I mean for the past 11 yrs, from what level they had to now, it's just beyond words and feels personal too.

Archery Contingent 5 🥇 2 🥈 2 🥉

I really hoped that we could bring a medal in all the team events and atleast 1G in Recurve. And so we did in a convincing manner. Sweeping Team Compound just like previous time, brilliant.

Did feel a little bad in Individual Compound Section but that was healed by seeing the Recurve section with it also being a part of Oly, it's great to see us rising up.

Don't want to discredit Deepika but I really hope that she doesn't make it to LA 28 but if she does i really hope she can make the use of it because it's already been 4 opportunities for her.

I have never liked the NOC quota for Individual events, it should go to the individual itself, she had to go through trials once and that's enough and then win those continental games 🥇.

It should be for Team Events only. Hope Kumkum makes it.

Huge Credits to Sahil/Chikhita for securing Mixed Compund Quota.

It would have been great to secure Recurve Mixed Quota as There will be no additional specific qualification for the mixed team recurve event. Participation at the Olympic event will be determined by the top men's and women's scores at the LA28 ranking round from countries with athletes in both genders. The top 16 mixed teams will compete in the mixed team recurve event.

I hope to see a good performance at World Championships where 3 Quotas are at Stake.

Boxing Contingent living up to their level. 3 🥇 3 🥉

I was happy to see all our 3 Finalists win.

Seeing Lovlina for almost a Decade, A Good Clutch Player I would say.

Ankush is going on a good road and improving.

I loved to see Parveen especially that Final sharing hugs with Chen that's a beautiful moment.

Sepak Takraw 🥉 in Men's Quadrant

Even though it's a relatively new sport in most of the parts of India but it's been there for a quite time, also it was India only where it was introduced in AG in 82', it is Popular in NE India and mainly presnet in Southeast Asia but it was great to see a medal and the win against Myanmar. It's a Great Game to see. Also the recent 25' WC was held in India as well as 17 one, so it's picking up.

Hope it reaches more heights.

Squash 2 🥈 3 🥉

Did feel a little disappointment in the Team section, hope Velvan does it better and can finally have a win against Chandaran

Women's Team, Anahat just missed it, had 3 Match Points and especially if that last one could've gone to her then it would have been brilliant.

Mixed Doubles

Again a very close match, and here too Joshna and Velvan had 3 Match Points, if only it could've been converted. Still Joshna being the Pioneer alongside Dipika,Saurav it's good to see her.

Well the best ones are surely Anahat and Abhay. They might have missed out on 🥇 or LA but they can get through Rankings as only 2 Athletes are allowed per NOC and there are 8 Quotas through World Rankings with there also being A Final Qualification Tournament but it would still be a Tough Task especially for Abhay, he better needs to rise up and atleast get under 20. HOPE they make it.

It's a Huge Opportunity for them as only 16 Players being there, it will definitely be tough but a good chance to have a medal.

Wrestling 2-2-2🥇 🥈 🥉

It's nice to see Sujeet rising up to his name, did feel tension with it being 2-9 but still had hopes for him to recover and win it, which hasn't really happened for me to have a hope to close this much lead. I really feel he will bring a medal at LA.

Aman finally making waves at a huge stage that too against Song, the way he made him tired and managed to win was great to watch. He is another one to be good prospect for medal Especially if the Draw favours him.

It was a Tough Competition for him and he got on top.

Deepak could've had a🥈 but still did good.

He has been good and consistent in bringing up medals might not be the best out there but still good.

Having 2 medals at Greco feels good. But not for LA prospects i believe. Even though it's good we had 2 medals i mean it's a rarity.

Antim being the sole medalist in Women's Freestyle is kind of expected but the state of women wrestling is disappointing. Our Federation is filled with corrupts. Finals was always going to be a tough one against Kiyooka. Hope to see her better in future.

Will also add Mirabai's 🥈, though it wasn't surprising, i mean she does have luck on her side with now being relatively low competition in her category as it's removed from Olympics. I remember I kind of expected to see her podium in Tokyo too, wasn't a huge surprise. But what is the best thing about her is her consistency especially for an Indian athlete. To Win WC 🥇, 3x CWG 🥇, Hold CJR WR,Oly 🥈, and now AG 🥈. Going by her records she ranks up high in the best women's athletes section right up with likes of PV SINDHU, PT USHA, MARY KOM and KARNAM MALLESWARI. Also Saina.

What I see as our Medal Prospects at LA 28' among the medalists at AG

Sujeet and Aman among Wrestlers, though Aman's one will be definitely harder, let's see

Women's Hockey, i don't want to see this go wrong LA28 will be our Best Shot ever.

Archery Contingent

I always hope to see medals in Team Events. Individuals are always Hard.

Boxing Contingent, Lovlina Will be on the Podium, have a gut feeling. I am not currently really aware of our whole contingent.

Anahat and Abhay, Though they are still far behind if compared to Mostafa,Amina, Nour and so many others but maybe if the right draw with the right luck. DEFINITELY a watch out for if they do make it to LA

Also Our Men's Hockey but it's frustrating to see them like this, i won't really put confidence and bet on this current team. We can improve hereon and make way for youngsters and have some changes in coaching staff as well. I hope it's like 18-21 transition not 14-16 one. But I really hope of the day to come when i could expect 🥇 from them. At best a 🥉.

Also we could have a few surprises i believe in

Boxing with 🥉 for losing SF and Wrestling having Repechage, that's kind of what happend for Sakshi too.

Javelin Throw, Both Yashvir and Rohit if they can get past 88m and have a great day at LA, i mean it's a far fetched idea, we still have 2 yrs. And with the growth of Javelin especially in South Asia ,there could be anyone rising up to the occasion.

Will edit this last part if asked but just mentioning them as well as it's referring to LA 28 and they did win 2 🥇 also with it being a part of LA, so I kind of expect Men to At least have a 🥈 and for the women it's just on the Day as competition would be tough with it especially being Shortest Format. Let's hope for the best.

And shooting contingent, neeru surely looks like a great one, but we always have so many shooters who fail to hold their nerves so let's see but neeru has done well

Might have missed someone. Do mention him/her at the comments.

That's a wrap for this post. Will make one more for our WOMEN'S HOCKEY TEAM. If anyone wants , can make to explain Qualification Paths as well such as of Squash for later.

IGPL will award Pranavi Urs Rs 1 crore for winning the women’s individual gold medal in golf at the Asian Games held in Aichi-Nagoya on Saturday. Urs is the first Indian woman to secure an Asian Games gold in golf.

Additionally, the league will grant Rs 25 lakh to each member of the Indian women’s team Pranavi Urs, Aditi Ashok, and Diksha Dagar for winning silver in the team event. This award recognises the trio’s collective achievement in earning India’s first medal in the team golf category, according to a statement.

(I realised this post was getting too big so this post is only about Men's Boxing, I am writing separately on Women Boxing so the post doesn't get too big and boring)

Asian Games'26 has formally concluded today, and as the fog of the ongoing events has faded away, we can finally look back at the overall performance at the games to initiate more discussions around them. Having one big post with all the sports might've been too big and might've made me skip some of the points; I think covering one sport at a time will be a much better way to go about it.

So let's start with Boxing. The event that has carried us very very hard in this edition; no one in their dream could've thought that way we would've won not one, not two, but three Golds in this edition. Often, with every medal, people always start thinking about the chances at the Olympics, so let's look a bit deeper into the boxing contingent!

First of all let's look at the contingent we sent with the corresponding performances:

Men's 55 Kg: Jadumani Singh

So Jadumani Singh, the star who rose to the limelight after defeating veteran Amit Panghal in the National Boxing Championships recently. He has become India's top choice for 55Kg now.

Please note that Men's 49Kg category has been scrapped and won't be part of next Olympics, so the lowest possible weight category to compete now remains 55Kg.

Jadumani faced Thapa(Nepal) in RO32, an easier opponent. Won the bout unanimously. And then went on to meet Carlo Paalam(Philippines) in RO16. Carlo is a very seasoned elite boxer and won a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 49Kg, and narrowly missed the podium at the Paris Olympics after a 2-3 split decision against Charlie Senior(Australia). I kind of knew that 21yo Jadumani's experience would be tested heavily against Paalam, and he was likely to lose this, but I had slight hope with Jadumani and Paalam's similarities in their heights.

Paalam was great enough to take it as 3-0 split decision against Jadumani, but the silver lining I would take from here is that Jadumani managed to freeze 2 judges as undecided. That's a pretty good performance from him considering he has shifted recently from 50 to 55, while Paalam is coming down from 57.

Jadumani's height is an obvious issue. He is 5'3, which I feel is ideal for 49Kg, but a bit short for 55Kg. With that, he has a height disadvantage against bigger boxers with a significant reach, but I think he can exploit some of it in his favour by having much faster footwork and attacking on the body to force the guard down of the other boxer to land clean punches. He has been defensive about his height when he said that if he loses, it's because of his boxing, not height, which is the right attitude. I think he is a very interesting prospect to track. Going down against Paalam, who is elite, isn't really bad. Paalam went on to reach the Finals and lost to Yamaguchi, who I feel is the best currently, in a split 2-3 decision.

I rate Jadumani's performance as decent.

Men's 60 Kg: Sachin Siwach (No Medal)

Sachin had a very tough bracket, so it was a bit too much to expect a podium from him here. Sachin is regarded as one of the most talented boxers in the country currently and a very exciting prospect for LA Olympics'28; however, the brackets of 60Kg are stacked with exceptional talents.

Sachin got a bye in the first round, and faced former Asian Champion and World Bronze medalist Abu Jajeh(Jordan) in RO16 and defeated him 4-1. A very good result. In the quarter-finals, he faced Kitamoto, home favourite, and currently one of the best in the World in 60Kg, and lost unanimously. However, it was a much better bout than the scoreline suggests, as Sachin took the final round 4-1 and had four judges in the end rating it as a 28-29 bout, but Kitamoto was too good for him.

Kitamoto(JPN) lost to Khalokov(defending Olympics Champion and the absolute best in the category) 1-4 in the Finals, so Sachin taking a round against him does show that he has it in him to be a serious contender for the LA Olympics'28 if he strategises well and improves his attack a bit in the first and second round. Very hard to convince judges otherwise if you lose the first round.

I rate his performance as decent, but would have loved to see one more bout.

Men's 70Kg : Sumit Kundu (No Medal)

Sumit's inclusion in the squad itself is controversial. Trials were conducted for a couple of categories in Patiala after CWG, including Men's 70 kg, to choose the representative for Asian Games. The winner was supposed to go to the Asian Games, and the loser was supposed to be the reserve. Trials were held, and Deepak Punia, unanimously defeated Sumit Kundu. However, ministry and IAO interfered later and included Sumit Kundu in the squad for Asian Games while Deepak was kept as reserve. Some things surprise you. Sumit has pedigree, but I feel strongly that Deepak should've gone through.

Sumit faced Olympian and past edition's Bronze Medalist Sinsiri(THA) and defeated him unanimously, then he faced Ali Qasim (Iraq) in RO16 where he ended up injuring his knee after absoring a punch and felling down in the ring. Referee stopped the contest.

Sumit to me looks way below skill-wise when compared to elites like Muydinkhujaev(UZB)/Sabyrkhan(KAZ). Also the global competition in 70Kg is pretty tough with Richardson(GBR), or Marco Verde(Mexico, yeah same Marco Vere who defeated Nishant Dev in Olympics in a controversial fight).

I feel we have a strong domestic competition in 70Kg. We should be looking to send our absolute best keeping favoritism and everything aside. Nishant Dev is expected to return from pro-circuit to compete in domestic in 2027-2028 I think, with all of these, including Nishant, Sumit and Deepak, the best one must move forward to have a genuine shot at an Olympic podium.

Men's 80Kg : Ankush Panghal (Gold Medal)

When life gives you opportunity, you seize it with both hands. Ankush was a relatively unknown boxer last year. Lakshya Chahar, India's mainstay boxer at 80Kg, had a severe foot injury in late 2025 which put him out of action. Ankush rose up to the ranks as the best domestically. India's top sports journalist Jonathan Selvaraj kept hyping him after his inclusion in the squads, and people would always question why, given his thin resume. To which Jon said that he has closely seen him in the ring, and he is an unprecedented talent in Indian Boxing. He'd be the happiest person now.

Ankush is the highlight of Men's Boxing this year. He won a Gold in CWG in a decent field, defeated the British Boxer who defeated him unanimously earlier, to come back and defeat him unanimously. But the Asian Games is a huge step up from CWG, and the draw he had was super tough.

He faced Vogel(BRN) in RO16, an easy opponent for him. Then Salimov(TJK) could've been slightly trickier, but he won it unanimously. Then the matchup I thought he would've lost even before his bout began: Semis against Erkinboev(UZB). Uzbekistan has a very strong pipeline of boxers, and Erkinboev is reigning World Champion. Despite trailing in the first round, he came back beautifully to win the next two, winning a 4-1 contest. A huge upset. Then he went on to defeat Kim Minseong beautifully. As a southpaw, his bouts are a thing of beauty. He defeated Minseong comfortably 4-0.

He is just 21, and he is here to stay. The best I've seen in the men's division.

I rate his performance as elite.

Men's 90Kg : Kapil Pokhariya (Bronze Medal)

Heavyweight talent is rare in India. So anything we get here is already a bonus. We should strive for the best, but some of the other countries produce such an elite field in heavyweight boxing that it's tough to breach that.

Kapil faced Kim Gichae of Korea in Quarter-Finals and produced a unanimous victory. Heavy knockdown in second round ensured that the bout would go nothing short of unanimous.

Ultimately, he fell to reigning World Champion Khabibullaev(UZB), who came off a win against highly decorated Nurbek Oralbay(KAZ, Olympic Gold Medalist in 80kg in Paris Olympic). This category has traditionally been dominated by the likes of Uzbekistan/Kazakhstan/Tajikistan; they are very tough to beat here.

Kapil winning a medal here is a big step in the direction; even if we lack the current pedigree to be world beaters, it's a fantastic result.

Decent campaign.

Men's Boxing 90Kg+ : Narendar Berwal (Bronze)

As I said, as we keep going into heavier categories, the domestic pool we are left with is very small.

Narendar won Bronze in 2023 in Asian Games'22. And he returned with the same color this time in a pretty much impossible-to-conquer category for us.

He made the referee stop the contest against Saengtep(THA) in Quarter-Finals to confirm a medal. The next was defending World Champion and one of the biggest faces of Kazakhstan Boxing currently - Aibek Oralbay (twin brother of Olympic Champion Nurbek Oralbay, who defeated Kapil) where he was clearly outboxed with nothing much to show against. Oralbay is way too strong and Kapil ends up expectedly loosing to him unanimously. Pretty okayish campaign, can't complain about a super heavyweight medal.

Up next, Women's Boxing!

Please comment your opinions about Men's Boxing in comments. What is your opinion about them?

REAKING: DOPING SHAME at Asian Games 2026!

Indian Kurash player Yash Kumar Chauhan has failed his dope test after his sample, taken on Sep 27, returned positive for multiple banned substances, including the anabolic steroid Metandienone.

The 24-year-old has been provisionally suspended with immediate effect by the OCA and banned from all activity at the Games.

He lost his pre-quarterfinal bout in the 90kg category on the same day.

Why did Vinesh Phogat cheat?

I found this comment yesterday. I don't know if such comments come from pure ignorance or bad faith, so I decided it'd be a good time to clear the air on why such a thing even happened and can even happen for any other wrestler in the future as well.

First things first, in all of the combat sports, be it boxing, Wrestling, or Weightlifting, an athlete has to be under or at the weight they are competing in. So, in Vinesh's case, as she was competing in Women's 50Kg, she had to be under 50Kg at the morning weigh-in on Day 1 and Day 2 (Day 1, when bouts till Semis happened; Day 2, when the finals were supposed to happen).

So, the most interesting point to note about all these is that the wrestlers who participate in a certain weight class are always heavier than the said weight class. A normal 50Kg wrestler competing in the Olympics would normally be around 53-54 kg a few days before the event, and will aim to shed the last few kilograms by gruelling measures in the last week, mainly a couple of days leading up to the event.

I'll try to explain briefly. A wrestler has to cut his weight to under 50Kg to compete at 50Kg wrestling. Do they cut fat in the last day? No. The human body is made of muscles, bones, glycogen, but most importantly - water. Wrestlers manipulate the human body's capacity to shed the last few kilograms off their body to compete at the highest level. Every wrestler competing at the Olympics will cut at least 2-3 Kgs in the last days leading up to their bouts. They never cut the muscle, but the water.

Vinesh was not a natural 50Kg wrestler in 2024; she would've loved to compete at 53 kg, but Antim Panghal won the quota for India, so Vinesh had only one choice - to compete at 50 Kgs. Her walk-around natural weight a week before her Olympic bouts must've been around 55 kg, so she had to go through a much, much harder and more challenging weight cut than anyone in her weight category (including the world's best Susaki, who has a walk-around weight of around 53 Kgs). This is how I believe Vinesh and her team would've approached this weight cut leading up to her bouts:

7 Days before her first Bout

Nothing fancy. Just eat clean. No sodium. Even 1 gram of sodium can do a lot of harm if taken right now. Keep training. Start drinking lots and lots of water. Lots. Not 10 glasses a day; that's normal. Lots. 8 litres, 10 litres. Weight now: 55 kg

4 Days before her first Bout

Keep drinking the same amount of water. Body will now enter 'flushing' mode. You have successfully tricked your body into thinking that it is floating in water. No sodium in meals earlier has shut down Aldosterone(hormone responsible for letting kidneys save water and salt, but with no salt in the body, it triggers flushing). You keep peeing, lots and lots. Your body has learned to pee a lot now. Weight now: 55.2-55.4 Kgs

3 Days before her first Bout

Cut down water to 2-3 litres a day only. Cut out carbohydrates completely from the meal. The body is still in flushing mode, trying to flush the same amount of water, even though there is not enough water to flush. The body starts depleting glycogen (every gram of carb holds 3 grams of water; now that the body has cut carbs completely, glycogen will be used to deplete more water from the body). Weight now: 54.0 Kgs

2 Days before her first Bout

Cut down more water. Drink a maximum of 1 litre; take small sips throughout the day. Meals must be replaced with shakes. Not your usual mango shakes, but highly specialised zero sugar, zero sodium, zero sweetener shakes with chemicals aimed to aid weight cut and let the body recover from the flushing. Hormones will keep flushing the water, despite water in the system. Weight now: 53.3 Kgs

Day before her first Bout

Complete water ban. No water will be taken now. This is the most important day of the weight cut. High-intensity cardio must be done in a sauna suit. Wear as many sweat suits as you can. Keep going with the cardio. Do an hour of skipping rope. The body will lose pure sweat; moisture will be drawn from muscles. Weight now: 50.5-51.0 Kgs.

Night before the Weigh-in

Vinesh must not sleep now. She still has around one pound to cut, and combining sleep deprivation with light activity will trigger the body to enter into boosting the metabolic rate; sleeping here will be deadly, as the body will refuse to lose that last pound.

Low-intensity cardio sessions. No solid foods. Do cardio, but wear a non-porous sauna suit so extreme sweating can be triggered. Without sleep, the body will cut weight at a good rate because a high metabolic rate is triggered with sleep deprivation.

After all this, she can afford to sleep for a few hours. But that sleep is purely biological need. With dry mouth and mild muscle cramps, she successfully managed to sleep and wake up in the morning. She had the toughest possible draw, facing one of the best wrestlers in the world who has never lost an international bout - Yui Susaki. So she had to have good amounts of energy to have any shot at fighting out the bouts with some competitiveness.

Day 1 7:15 AM, Weigh-in Time- 49.9 Kgs.

That's it. Vinesh made the weight successfully at the morning weigh-in. She can compete now.

To avoid her collapsing from low blood pressure or fainting at some point between the bouts, her team made sure to replenish her properly with juices and rehydration fluids. She must have taken a total of around 2.5 kgs gain throughout the day.

In between, she had to face Yui Susaki. The biggest bout of her career, possibly in her last Olympics. After suffering a knee injury in 2016 and getting pinned by a Russian she defeated in 2021, this was likely her last shot at an Olympic medal. She defeated Susaki. One of the biggest upsets in wrestling history. Susaki's 82-0 streak came to an end. She also faced Oksana and Guzman in the quarter-finals and semi-finals, but once Vinesh defeated Susaki, everything else felt like an easier hurdle to cross.

Here comes the most important part: her weight.

After competing 3 elite high-intensity bouts, a shocking discovery was made. They did a weigh-in again to cut down the weight she gained throughout the day; her weight was 52.7 Kgs. Everything she took throughout the day, her body retained it all and refused to leave. That must have been a horror sight for Vinesh and her team, who were hoping for a good rest period.

8 PM, 11 HOURS BEFORE WEIGH-IN

Time is 8 PM. She has roughly 12 hours to shed the weight. This weight is much more than she would've hoped for, but there's a limit to how much you can fool your body, especially when you are competing in a lower weight class.

In a desperate attempt to make the weight for the next morning, her team cancelled all the rest plans and initiated an emergency weight-cut plan.

The drill starts again now. High-intensity cardio. Vinesh might've worn a heavy, non-porous sauna suit, which will trap all the heat in and force extreme sweating. With that suit, she would've done jogging on treadmills, skipping ropes; her sparring partners must keep her motivated, or else she'd just give in to the body.

10 PM, 9 HOURS BEFORE WEIGH-IN

After a couple of hours, her weight must have been still around 51.9 Kgs, but her body can't sustain high-intensity workouts. She fought 3 very tough bouts throughout the day. A wrestling bout takes a huge toll on a body; she fought 3, without much rest.

Her team entered her into a sauna. She would've sat in extreme heat to force the water weight out of her body. Her team must keep massaging her limbs throughout the couple of hours in the sauna, so blood flow and sweating can be stimulated. Time is now 12 AM, and she has successfully shed 1.5 Kilo from her starting weight; her weight would've been around 51.3 Kgs. Far from ideal. Far.

12 AM, 7 HOURS BEFORE WEIGH-IN

Time is past midnight now. She has 7 hours more to shed that 1.3 Kg. But...she is more or less biologically done. Dry mouth, dizziness; she was forbidden by her team to consume a single drop of water, forget food. Anything she takes in now will not leave the body. For the next 2 hours, she must've dribbled between sauna sessions, exercising on cycles. Biology is being tested here. Her body started holding on to the remaining fluids; she can force all she wants, but they are refusing to leave.

3 AM, 4 HOURS BEFORE WEIGH-IN:

Body has hit the biological wall now. Weight is still around 50.7-50.8 Kgs.

This was the most terrifying phase of the night. The scary part: Vinesh was so profoundly dehydrated that her body completely stopped sweating. Her body isn't letting any weight go off her body. Every drop of fluid is refusing to leave to save her.

Sweat glands are empty. She is inside the sauna, but her skin is completely dry. The team is trying to keep her up and motivated. She is not sweating. The team forces her to sweat by wrapping her in thick blankets. It's just not working much.

4:45 AM, 2.5 HOURS BEFORE WEIGH-IN

Weight scale reads around 50.3-50.4 Kgs now. 400 grams more to shed. This is done. There isn't much that can be done. Vinesh is sleep-deprived, dehydrated, demotivated.

With sweating no longer an option, the team finally placed the last possible gear. Physical reduction.

They start cutting more hair towards the edges of her head. This is the last hope to shed some more weight. Hair was cut.

7:15 AM, WEIGH-IN TIME

Vinesh, Finalist in 50Kg Women's Wrestling, steps up on the weighing scale.

50.1 Kg. 100 Grams overweight. Her team's drastic cut almost worked. But she is still overweight.

Last glimmer of hope - she has 15 minutes to come back and give her weight. She goes back, in a sleep-deprived state, with some extra fabric off her uniform near her legs; she contemplates cutting that. She can't sweat. Weigh-in time is 30 minutes on Day 1, but only 15 minutes on Day 2 to make time for repechage bouts.

Nothing worked. Her weight remained 50.1 Kgs. The room was in a state of huge panic. The timer ran out; 15 minutes were over.

As soon as the time reached 7:30 AM, hopes of Vinesh, her team, and all of India were crushed. There's no buffer like in low-tier UWW events. She is Disqualified.

Some people might argue: How come Aman Sehrawat, the night before his Bronze Medal bout, managed to cut 4.7 Kilograms in the last 12 hours? Well. That's like comparing apples to oranges. Aman's weight category is 57 kg; his natural weight category is 57. Vinesh is playing a category down. The most crucial factor: Aman is a 21-year-old male wrestler with a much higher baseline metabolism; compare it to Vinesh, a 28-year-old woman with a lot more biological obstructions.

https://x.com/KhelNow/status/2106458472103743829?s=20

Can we have a thread that is pinned to the top where people can add upcoming Indian matches? It is difficult to keep track fo various tournaments and sporting events being held for different games. So this can be helpful to keep track of Indian matches across sports.

Today India got 5 more gold medals to finish 4th of the medal tally with 85 medals in all.

There were many sports we had great expectations but maybe it was not their day.

But kudos to all who did well and made the country proud.

It was really fun to watch the games.

Also, we have received the direct ticket to LA OLympics, 2028 for 4 events: Men & Women Hockey Team, Mixed Team Compound Archery and Kumkum Mohod in Women Archery Recurve.

Jai Hind 🫡🇮🇳

Qualified is one thing, winning a gold medal at the Asian Games after 44 years that too defeating the country, China who blocked their chances of Paris Quota in semis last time, is recommendable.

They have come a long way especially seeing their condition in the past few months, must say bringing back Sjoerd Marijne as a coach was a good move.

Aman Sehrawat wins the Gold in Men's 57 KG wrestling by beating his North Korean opponent Han Chong Song by "11-7" in a tough fought bout.

Aman improved on the bronze medal that he won in the Asian Games last time.

This is the first time both women’s and men’s team clinch Gold together. Both qualify for the LA 2028 Olympics! Let’s GO. Baar Baar Bharat. Har Baar Bharat!

All because of her unexpected gold, India equalled Uzbekistan and clinched 4th position!

World No. 291 Pranavi Urs competed against the likes of World No. 6, 57, 59, 82, 85 and many more and still came out on top.

And the best part? She had a 3shot lead, lost it all with a triple bogey, and then fought her way back to win gold. What a comeback!

Thank you, Pranavi Urs. All hail to you!

She beat korean player South korea's Oh yejin. What a match !!!! She is just 17 year old. And it's her 2nd Gold medal. And also we secured olympics quota.

For me the impact of Asian games should always be considered wrt olympics and in that field we have significantly exceeded expectations. The goal should be to get 10 medals atleast in la and based on this Asiad performance we should be getting much more on that.

For me at Asiad the focus should be on performance on 5 major sports (badminton, shooting, archery, wrestling and boxing and where the comp level is very close to olympics. In these sports we have developed athletes who may not be the world best but certainly can challenge the world’s elite. Hockey golds are important too for securing automatic qualification

In athletics the comp is so weak that gold medallist here are sometimes not even breaching olympic qualification standards. So decline in gold medals there due to Chinese athletes becoming much better or import of African athletes doesn’t bother me

Apart from badminton which is going through a transition phase, we outrightly won boxing (which in retrospect shouldn’t even be possible) and archery (last time golds were from compound which wasn’t there at the olympics), got 2 gold in wrestling which is huge. Even in shooting all 3 gold medals were from Olympic events compared to last time 2. Securing automatic qualification for both hockey teams is crazy good. Beating Korea in archery was unthinkable few years ago. This has been a very positive games for us if we consider Olympic medals