Asian Games 2023: ‘Nervous nineties is as good as century’

Officials of the Indian Olympic Association IOA and Athletics Federation of India AFI wore broad smiles at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre on Wednesday night as the athletics contingent completed an impressive wrap on the final day of the track and field competitionIndia bagged its best ever 29 medals in athletics including six gold 14 silver and nine bronze faring far better than the Jakarta 2018 editionrsquos 20 medalsIOA chief PT Usha said the athletes have justified the immense support and faith the country has put in them ldquoWe have won medals in most of the events we participated in so we should be proud of our achievementrdquo the former sprint queen who won a record four gold and one silver at the 1986 Seoul Asian Games told middayAlso ReadPrannoy enters semis becomes first Indian in 41 years to medal in mens singlesNeeraj ChopralsquoOur 800m timing not goodrsquoThe athlete in her however could not resist making some finer points ldquoMost of the timings were good but of course there is room for improvement In the 800m event for example our timing was not good Indiarsquos Harmilan Bains clinched silver in the womenrsquos 800m race clocking 20375 Tintu Luka former middledistance runner and national champion used to clock 201 and even better a few years ago so we have not improved a lot in this But overall our athletes have improved so thatrsquos goodrdquo she addedAFI chief Adille Sumariwalla claimed that the athletics contingent superseded expectations ldquoBefore the Games we had said that we would bag 24 or 25 medals in athletics but we have given 29 so thatrsquos a brilliant achievement We wonrsquot touch the magic figure of 100 but will be in the nervous nineties for sure People need to understand that such performances do not happen overnight There is a lot of planning by the federation and hard work by athletes that has gone in itrdquo said the former sprinterBhupender Singh Bajwa Adille Sumariwalla Anju Bobby George and PT Usha PicsAshwin FerroIndiarsquos Chef de Mission Bhupender Singh Bajwa agreed with the AFI chief ldquoOur sportspersons began these Games very well but in between there were fewer medals so we then started expecting 80 to 85 medals But now with this good show by our athletics team it will definitely go into the 90srdquo he saidStepping stone for ParisAFI Vice President and former champion long jumper Anju Bobby George said this performance could well be the stepping stone to bringing glory at next yearrsquos Paris Olympics ldquoThere have been some extraordinary performances and there have been some unexpected dips but overall itrsquos been a wonderful show by our athletes This shows that our planning is good and we are heading in the right direction But this is not our destination Our ultimate aim is the Olympics where we need to win medals Just before these Games when we did a TV commercial claiming that we can reach 100 medals many people wouldrsquove laughed at us but now we have come so close and should finish between 90 and 100 We also missed a few medals like menrsquos and womenrsquos long jump triple jump and 400m flat race otherwise we wouldrsquove easily touched 100rdquo she explained