The Asian Games this year, in that sense, were most critical for India's 2024 Paris Olympics hopefuls. And the heightened celebratory noise around India's best-ever outing at an Asian Games that fetched 107 medals from Hangzhou did bring along quiet optimism about a similar Olympic high in Paris in less than eight months time.
The Asian Games were a success not just in terms of the quantity of medals but also the broad spread of sports that delivered it.
Track & field built on its steadily rising promise. Shooting lifted itself from the lull that followed the Tokyo Olympics debacle. Badminton and table tennis found delight in doubles, courtesy the combo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty and Sutirtha Mukherjee-Ayhika Mukherjee. The men's hockey team got the job done, and the Paris ticket booked, with the gold. Squash and compound archery-though not part of the Olympics - gave ample reason to cheer. Boxing and wrestling, pegged back by offfield distractions, continued to rope in medals with varied degree of success.
The takeaways were plenty, with standout faces in almost each of these disciplines to carry India's medal hopes at the Paris Games.
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