China swept the 16th Asian games as expected. The Hosts dominated the show by winning 416 medals including 199 G, 119 S, 98 B. As competition progressed the fight for second spot was between South Korea and Japan. But it was South Korea who bagged the second place with 76 G , 65 S, 91 B taking a tally of 232medals. India bettered its own Asian Games tally to find itself in No.6 with its best ever medal tally of 64 comprising of 14G, 17S, 33B, surpassing its earlier record of 13G with a total of 59 medal in 1982 Asian Games which held in Delhi.
HEROES of the event:
In Tennis, Indian star Somdev Devarman repeated his magic of CWG. Not only in singles but also in doubles . With big names like Bhupathi, Paes, Bopanna missing their Asian games due to their ATP commitments, all expectations fell on Somdev’s shoulder and the first gold came from Doubles event beating the host, in spite of a hostile home crowd support high on their heels, the match went to a super tie breaker when the Indians held their nerves to win the super tie breaker . 
The singles gold was much better and sweeter, Somdev, currently 106 in the ATP Rankings beat his Uzbek opponent, Denis Istomin, ranked 66 places above him in straight sets 6-1,6-2. The youth icon said that it was his childhood dream to win medals for the country and nothing important than playing for country. Something which other senior players have to learn from him. In Kabbadi team both men and women players bagged the gold , while men's team beat Iran with an comfortable margin, women team won the semis by 1pt against Iran and marched to gold by beating the Thailand.
To everyone’s surprise most of gold medals won came from Tracking & Field events, which till date haven’t been such a good hunting ground for the Indians. It bagged 5G,2S, 4B to move India to 8th position with Joseph Abraham and Ashwini Akkunji created history by winning 400m Hurdles.
In some cases India missed bronze narrowly by a margin of 1/100th second. On the whole they played with heart and raised to the occasion.
The REAL HERO:
It was Vijender Singh who was the Star of the games who earned India the 14th Gold when all the odds were against him when hehumbled the two-time World champion Abbos Atoev of Uzbekistan by 7-0
for a memorable gold, thereby making a new record of 14G for India in Asian Games history and therefore was the Flag-bearer for India at the Closing ceremony of the games.
ZEROES of the event:
The games started with disappointment as the Indian shooters could not win golds with the likes of like Abhinav Bindra, Gagan Narang who had much success in CWG . Boxing athletes could better only with 7 medals. Many CWG Gold medalists who made it finals were not able to convert that silver into gold. As the days progressed India was lying in 12 position in medals tally.
The huge disappointment came from Men’s Hockey, after their scintillating run in CWG , everyone expected them to win gold, but unfortunately they lost to Malaysia 4-3 in semis, though they bagged bronze by beating Koreans. Women’s team really were miserable.
In Badminton, Sania Nehwal could not repeat her magic as she did not do justice to her status and missed out her gold.
In Cricket, which is introduced for the first time in Asian games, BCCI should have acted more wisely by team sending their B team just like the Sri Lankans and Pakistan, for a nation like India which breathes Cricket this act was a shame and it is BCCI who should be held responsible but the climax saw both the Asian majors being upset by an unknown Afghan team and Bangladesh team. Credit must go to Afghan players, but unfortunately they lost the finals by 3 runs to Bangladesh. However Pakistan saw their women’s team to bag gold.
Though this was India’s best show in Asian Games with an haul of 64 medals, let us hope they learn from their mistakes and bring more laurels to the country in the future.
Good luck for 2012 LONDON OLYMPICS
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