Asian Games 2023: India’s medal tally after Day 1, 24th September

India won 5 medals on Day 1, 24th September in the Hangzhou Asian Games 2023.

After the world witnessed a spectacular opening ceremony at the Olympic Sports Centre Stadium on Saturday, the Asian Games 2023, in Hangzhou, China, got officially underway on September 24. The 19th edition of the prestigious event will mark its culmination on October 8, 2023. Various nations belonging to the Asian contingent have fielded their prominent athletes at the prestigious continental Games, who will aim to bring laurels to their respective nations.

On Sept 24, Sunday, i.e., the official day one of the multi-sport tournament, Indian athletes contested in numerous sports such as Cricket, Shooting, Rowing, Football, Volleyball, Rugby Sevens, Esports, Field Hockey, Boxing, Chess, Fencing, Wushu, Table Tennis, Tennis, and Swimming.

The Indian women's cricket team convincingly beat Bangladesh by 8 wickets to reach the final after restricting them to 51 runs. Indian athletes put up impressive performances in both Rowing and Shooting events to open their medal tally, while the men's hockey team thrashed Uzbekistan 16-0. Two-time World champion Nikhat Zareen comprehensively defeated world silver medalist Nguyen Thi Tam in their surprising first-match contest.

Number of medals presented to Indian athletes on 24th September:

The Indian contingent opened their medal tally, bagging three silver and two bronze medals, on Day 1, September 24, 2023. Olympians Arjun Lal Jat and Arvind Singh, who rose to fame during the Tokyo Olympics 2020, bagged India’s first medal at the Asian Games 2023 by winning silver in the men’s lightweight double sculls event. They came in second with a total of 6:28.18, behind China’s Junjie Fan/ Man Sun’s 6:23.16.

India earned two more medals in Rowing - silver in the men’s eight and bronze in the men’s pair events. The men’s pair team of Babu Lal Yadav and Lekh Ram with a timing of 6:50.41s, was behind Hong Kong and Uzbekistan. While, the men’s eight team comprising Neeraj, Naresh Kalwaniya, Neetish Kumar, Charanjeet Singh, Jaswinder Singh, Bheem Singh, Punit Kumar, Ashish, and Uttam Dhananjay Pandey, clocked 5:43.01 to finish just 2.84 behind China.

The other two medals came in Shooting, where the 19-year-old sensation, Ramita Jindal, making her debut at the Asian Games, clinched the bronze in the women's 10m air rifle event with a score of 230.1. In addition to Ramita's individual brilliance, the trio of Ramita, Mehuli Ghosh, and Ashi Chouksey bagged the silver medal for India in the women's team 10m air rifle category. They earned a collective score of 1886.0, finishing behind China, who posted a total of 1896.6.

Asian Games 2023: Updated Indian medal tally after 24th September:

Overall, India finished in seventh place at the end of the opening day in Hangzhou with a total of five medals, that included three silver and two bronze. Table leaders China clinched a total of 20 gold medals to take their overall count to 30. South Korea and Japan shared the same number of total medals (14), but Korea are placed second having won five gold to Japan's two. Hong Kong (7), Uzbekistan (7) and Chinese Taipei (4) are the nations above India in the overall medal tally at the end of Day 1 (September 24) in Asian Games 2023.

Indonesia, Mongolia and Iran complete the top 10 with four, three and two medals respectively.

What to expect on September 25?

Fans should brace themselves for an action-packed day, as Indian rowers will feature in four out of the seven Rowing events’ finals. Besides, there will be qualification rounds in both Shooting and Swimming, where if Indian athletes make the cut, they will vie for medals in the finals. However, the highlight of the day will be the face-off between India and Sri Lanka in the women's cricket final, set to commence at 11:30 am (IST), in which India will start as favorites.

Indian athletes will hope to better their last edition’s Asian Games performance at the Asian Games 2022 in Hangzhou. At the Asian Games 2018, India ended their campaign with an eighth-place finish, winning a total of 69 medals, including 15 gold, 24 silver, and 30 bronze medals.