India hope for a field day on the track

Athletes will seek to use the Asian Games as a springboard to success on world stage

- Rutvick Mehta

By sheer volume, athletics stands a cut above the rest in terms of medals by sport for India at the Asian Games. The 254 medals by India’s track and field athletes are more than four times that of the next best (wrestling, 59), and only behind Japan (586) and China (462) among countries with most medals at the continental showpiece.

This, even before India had a poster boy on the global athletics stage whose presence was as visible in commercials back home as in competitions. Before India had a bunch of faces at the World Championships compared to a sparse sighting. Before India had a steady pool of athletes competing among elite fields instead of a trickled stream.

From the 20 Indian track and field medallists and eight champions at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games was Neeraj Chopra, a 20-year-old potential star-in-the-making javelin thrower. Leading a bigger pack of track and field medal hopefuls at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games is Chopra, a 25-year-old Olympic and world champion who reached for the stars and grabbed it in unprecedented fashion.

This Asian Games will not just be about Chopra, though (well, his javelin final, where he is likely to be joined by more compatriots, will still be the most-anticipated event). It will also be about other competitors in other disciplines for whom the event presents an opportunity to leave their mark not just in the medals record but also Indian athletics’ current upswing.