Red Letter Day in Indian Sports.

Men's badtaminton team of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy took gold out of lion's den, China. They did it with the full support of local fans, because they were playing a South Korean pair which had defeated China's World No. 2 duo of Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang in the Round of 16. India won six medals on Friday-besides the badminton gold, one each came in men's and women's kabaddi, a historic first in men's cricket and two in archery's compound competitions. The women's kabaddi gold will taste the sweetest as it took India's tally to 100. India's record-breaking campaign in Hangzhou finished with a historic 107 medals-28 gold, 38 silver and 41 bronze, surpassing their previous best set at 2018 Jakarta, by a massive 37 medals. 

Out of 107,female athletes contributed towards 54 medals, i. e., 50.40 percent, as India spent its largest-ever contingent with 651 athletes. Indian athletes participated in 36 sports and won medals in 22 disciplines. Hangzhou brought several highs for India- highest-ever medals in athletics on foreign soil, highest-ever medals in shooting with seven gold in this edition alone as comapred to nine gold won across all editions till 2018. India also secured medals in some disciplines after waiting for ages- equestrian after a gap of 41 years, women's shot put, Kiran Baliyan after 72 years, men's only decathlon, Tejaswin Shankar after 49 overs. 

In Hangzhou, a total of 23 national records were created by Indian athletes, including 11 in shooting, four each in archery and athletics, three in swimming and one in cycling, eleven Asiad records were broken in archery, athletics and shooting while three world records were achieved in shooting. It's notable that currently there are 285 TOPS (Target Olympic Podium Scheme) athletes supported by the Sports Authority of India as against 75 in 2014. It is also notable that the government hired 49 foreign experts for the Asiad cycle post Tokyo Olympics. This surely gave a huge boost to Indian athletes' performance. Winning over 100 medals in a single Asian Games is a breakthrough performance that is bound to inspire a fresh wave of interest for sport in the country.