Punjab, Oct. 3 -- India finished the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games with 85 medals - 21 gold, 27 silver, 37 bronze - and fourth on the medal table. It is the country's second-best Asian Games, after 2022. Competition ended on 3 October; the closing ceremony is today.
Where the 21 golds came from
The pattern that actually explains the campaign
India won a double gold - men's and women's - in three different team sports: cricket, hockey and kabaddi. That has not happened before.
And eight of the 21 came from archery and shooting, the two disciplines India has quietly funded hardest for a decade.
What that says is that the gold count is now built on programmes rather than individuals. Three of these golds would have been impossible to predict f...