“World is witnessing India taking giant leap forward in sports”: Brajesh Pathak hails Asian Games efficiency

Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], October 4 (ANI): Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak on Sunday lauded the outstanding efficiency of Indian athletes on the just lately concluded Asian Games 2026, stating that the nation’s progress on the worldwide stage throughout all sectors is mirrored by its achievements in worldwide sports activities.

India signed off from the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games with 85 medals, together with 21 gold, 27 silver and 37 bronze, ending fourth within the total medal standings.

Pathak emphasised that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promoted sport by way of higher price range and enhanced infrastructure. 

‘The manner Indian athletes have demonstrated their prowess on the Asian Games is outstanding. Today, India is advancing quickly throughout all sectors on the worldwide stage. Prime Minister has constantly promoted sports activities; the sports activities price range has been elevated, athletes are being supplied with amenities assembly worldwide requirements, and they’re even being instantly recruited into high-ranking positions. Today, the morale of our athletes is at an all-time excessive, and I prolong my heartiest congratulations and finest needs to all of them. The whole world is witnessing India taking a large leap ahead within the realm of sports activities as properly,’ Pathak advised reporters. 

The triumphs throughout varied disciplines drew widespread appreciation from political leaders nationwide.

Highlighting the historic gold medal victory in males’s cricket, BJP MP Manan Kumar Mishra expressed immense pleasure.

‘It is a matter of nice pleasure and pleasure for the complete nation that our Indian cricket crew has defeated Pakistan and secured the highest spot amongst Asian groups. I really feel there could be no larger trigger for happiness than this for our nation, its youth, and its folks,’ he stated. 

India defeated Pakistan by 19 runs within the males’s cricket ultimate to clinch the gold medal on the Asian Games 2026. The males’s victory accomplished India’s golden double in cricket, after the ladies’s crew had earlier defeated Sri Lanka by 147 runs within the ladies’s ultimate. The males’s crew was powered by contributions from Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma and Axar Patel to safe the gold medal.

Echoing comparable sentiments, TMC MP Saugata Roy additionally congratulated the athletes. 

‘India did very properly; we completed fourth on the Asian Games. I wish to give the credit score to the gamers and congratulate them. In cricket, hockey, taking pictures, archery-very good,’ Roy advised ANI. 

India’s marketing campaign was highlighted by a clear sweep of gold medals throughout cricket, kabaddi and hockey, with Indian groups successful all six gold medals within the males’s and ladies’s competitions in these three sports activities.

In kabaddi, the ladies’s crew defeated Iran 37-34 within the ultimate to efficiently defend its title, whereas the lads’s facet got here from behind to beat Iran 40-34.

The males’s kabaddi gold was India’s ninth in 10 editions because the sport grew to become a males’s crew occasion on the Asian Games in 1990. The solely exception got here in 2018, when India received bronze.

The ladies’s kabaddi crew has remained dominant because the sport was launched to the ladies’s programme in 2010.

Hockey additionally produced a historic double for India. The ladies’s crew ended a 44-year anticipate an Asian Games medal by defeating China 1-0 within the ultimate, with Lalremsiami scoring the decisive aim within the tenth minute. It was India’s first ladies’s hockey gold on the Asian Games since 1982.

The males’s hockey crew then defeated Malaysia 5-1 within the ultimate to efficiently defend its Asian Games title. It was India’s fifth males’s hockey gold after earlier victories in 1966, 1998, 2014 and 2022.

The victories additionally marked the primary time that India’s males’s and ladies’s hockey groups received gold medals on the identical version of the Asian Games.

With their respective victories, each Indian hockey groups secured qualification for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.

India’s 85-medal haul was under its document 106 medals, together with 28 gold, on the Hangzhou Asian Games in 2023, however the Aichi-Nagoya marketing campaign featured a number of record-breaking performances, first-time podium finishes and historic particular person achievements.

China topped the general medal standings with 341 medals, together with 169 gold, adopted by hosts Japan with 269 medals, together with 83 gold. South Korea completed third with 150 medals, together with 39 gold. (ANI)