India had a terrific 2022 Asian Games at Hangzhou, China and the number of medals are backed up by sporting achievements both good and great.
From the broader figures to the small, offbeat ones that may have skipped our attention, ESPN India picks out the numbers that defined India's incredible campaign:
107
The number of medals India won at the Hangzhou Asian Games. Unprecedented. Record-shattering, history making. India are now only the fourth nation to cross the 100-medal mark at an Asiad. This is a 52% increase from India's previous best haul (70, set last time at Jakarta 2018).
Also, as impressive as that number is, it tells you only half the story.
4
India's 4th place finish is the best the country has been placed since a third-place finish in Jakarta 1962 and a second-place one in New Delhi 1951.
22
India won medals in 22 disciplines - that's the most disciplines India have medalled in at a single Asiad ever. The best before that was 18... in 2018.
100%
5 Compound archery finals, five gold medals: what the Indian archers did at Hangzhou was simply astounding. Just to show you how dominant they were, Ojas Deotale hit 44 10s out of a possible 45 in the quarters, semis and final of the men's individual event. Ridiculous.
Ojas and Jyothi Surekha Vennam were also India's most successful athletes with three golds each.
65
Minutes that the kabaddi men's final was 'suspended' for as India's players protested a referee's interpretation of a rule and then the Iranian players did likewise. A reminder: a kabaddi match is actually just 40 minutes long.
1
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty won India's first ever badminton gold at the Asian Games. In the process, they also became the first Indian men's pair to be ranked world no.1.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty.
JUST. TOO. GOOD. pic.twitter.com/2uZcdjj8XW
- ESPN India (@ESPNIndia) October 7, 2023
7.6
There has rarely ever been a series of five shots like this: 10.2, 10.3, 7.6, 10.5, 10.1.
At the time of the first two shots, Swapnil Suresh Kusale was leading the men's 50m rifle 3 positions final, and by a margin. Then came the 7.6. That dropped him to fifth, and even though the 10.5 helped to gain one place, the 10.1 was good enough only to seal fourth.
From gold to no medal, and it all came from a wild outlier of a shot.
- 115 and 2
India's rugby women's team were put in a tough, tough group and it showed. Throughout four matches today and yesterday, they conceded 122, but they did score a try (and make a conversion). The real number that defined their tournament was two. Hupi Majhi whizzed past the Japanese defence and it looked almost certain she'd score. Almost. Two yards from the try line she was tackled, brought down, and a turnover was forced almost immediately. Just 2 yards.
3 for 6 in 4
In cricket, how do you defend a total of 116 in 20 overs? It probably helps if your medium pacer comes and removes the opposition's entire top order for the cost of a boundary and a half.
That's exactly what Titas Ranadeep Sadhu did as she cleaned up Sri Lanka with figures of 3/6 in four overs as India's women's team beat Sri Lanka to win Asian Games gold on debut.
4: 15-15, 16-16, 17-17, 18-18
In the 10m mixed team shooting bronze medal match, India's Ramita Jindal and Divyansh Panwar took a massive 8-0 lead before South Korea's Eunseo Lee and Hajun Park clutch-shot their way back to 9-9. But the drama was just starting. India went 13-9 up, then 15-11 before Lee and Park upped their game once again to make it 15-15.
Then it became a straight shootout, whoever won the next set would take bronze: and that brought with it an extraordinary series of shots where both teams hit the exact same scores: 21.0 to make it 16-16, 21.0 again to make it 17-17 and 20.9 to make it 18-18! Four series, four tied scores...incredible!
In the end, Lee and Park would clinch it 20-18 with a score of 21.5 vs 21.2.
77
An Indian athlete at the Asian Games who pre-dates independent India. Whoddathunk? Bharati Dey, 77, was born in March 1946 and led India's women's bridge team at Hangzhou. What's even funkier? Her youngest teammate, Vidhya Patel, is 22. From the British Empire to the new millennium, this team has seen it all.
469.6
India's first individual gold of the Hangzhou Games was won in some style; Sift Kaur Samra obliterating the world record (by 2.6 points) en route to winning by a margin of 7.6 (in a sport where the highest points possible per shot is 10.9). MBBS' loss is world shooting's gain.
8.9
In the penultimate round of shooting in the final of the 50m 3 Positions rifle, Ashi Chouksey needed just a 9.4 to enter the final round and make it a remarkable 1-2 to India. Coming off a series of 10.5 and 10.2, silver was in the bag... till she shot an 8.9. That was that, and silver changed in an instant to bronze.
Oh, what could have been.
10 and 10
Imagine needing perfection, twice -- at the very last chance -- to win gold. Imagine nailing perfection. Men's pistol last two shots: After Arjun Singh Cheema had shot a 9 with his final shot, India needed to make no mistakes to beat China to gold, and that's what Sarabjot Singh and Shiva Narwal did, hitting a 10 each on their last shot. That took India's total to 533, just 1 point ahead of China's total.
-48.24
One of those sobering numbers that show you how far India are from the best in certain events. India smashed their national record in the finals of the 4x200m women's freestyle relay by swimming it in 8:37.58 but what really put this in context was how far away they were from eventual gold medalists, China... who finished 48.24 seconds ahead of them.
This is so good to see ❤️
(via revolve_around_sun/IG) pic.twitter.com/8CSxPT4xFY
- ESPN India (@ESPNIndia) October 7, 2023
(177 + 112) - (2+4) = 283
Ayhika Mukherjee is world no. 177, Sutirtha 112. Chen Meng is world no.2, Wang Yidi world no. 4. But the Indians played 'bindaas' and pulled off a win that still has the potential to send the TT world into a spin. They ended with a bronze, but Mukherjee magic will live on in Indian sporting fable.
425
Avinash Sable ran, everyone else chased. In what was one of the most dominant displays on an Asiad track by an Indian, Sable completely dominated the men's 3000m steeplechase final to win by 4.25 seconds. And he did that while jogging and celebrating much before the finish line. Incredible.
0, 0... 2
In his men's individual recurve archery QF, Dhiraj Bommadevara had a nightmarish outing. In a sport where archers are disappointed to not score 9 or 10 on the target, Dhiraj managed to miss the entirety of the target completely - TWICE. Two zeros. He would make up for it with some clutch shooting in the men's team event, where India won a maiden silver.
1 and 0.59
Parul Chaudhary became the first-ever female athlete at the Asian Games to medal in the women's 3000m steeplechase (silver) and 5000m race (gold). She's also the first Indian women to win a 5000m gold.
Yet, these feats were 0.59 seconds away from not happening - Parul producing a late kick on the inside to sneak past leader Ririka Hironaka of Japan in the last 30 metres. Ririka's stunned face, perfectly captured by the photographers at the Asian Games is perhaps the best descriptor of how thrilling the end to that race was.
68
The Indian men's hockey team scored 68 goals in total during their gold-winning campaign at the Hangzhou Asian Games. They had scored 80 goals in 2018, but finished with the bronze. Perhaps Craig Fulton has a point with his 'defend to attack' philosophy.