New Delhi  :  The opening ceremony of the 2023 Asian Games will be held on Saturday , September 23  and will last until  October 8. However, some competitions for this major event have already started. However, the opening ceremony will take place on Saturday. The 19th Asian Games was supposed to be held in 2022, but because of Corona, the schedule got messed up and the Games were postponed to 2023. This time cricket has been included, which is also the focus of interest. Indian hockey team captain Harmanpreet Singh and star boxer Lovlina Borgohain will be India’s flag bearers at the grand opening ceremony on 23 Septemberin Hangzhou.

After stellar performances at the Tokyo Olympics and the 2022 Commonwealth Games, fans this year are hoping their athletes can win more medals for their country than last time. At the 2023 Asian Games, Indian athletes will compete for medals in 39 sports. The Indian cricket team is participating in this competition for the first time. The men’s team will be led by Rituraj Gaikwad and the women’s team by Harmanpreet Kaur. Weightlifter Mirabai Chanu, boxer Lovlina Borgohain and wrestler Bajrang Punia, all Olympic medallists, will also compete in Hangzhou.

There will be 74 quotas for the Paris Olympics that will be awarded for the Paris Olympics. Of these, six will be given in archery, 10 in swimming, 34 in boxing, two in break-down, two in hockey, 10 in pentathlon, six in sailing, two in tennis, and two in water polo.

A total of 655 Indian athletes are participating in the Asian Games this time, which is the country’s largest contingent so far. However, these five Indian athletes, including javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, are the ones who have legitimate hopes of winning a medal. Boxer Nikhat Zareen is also high on this list.

At the last Asian Games, held in Jakarta in 2018, India equaled the record of 1951 in terms of gold medals and also achieved its best record in the history of these Games in terms of total number of medals. With 15 gold, 24 silver and 29 bronze medals, India’s total medal tally reached 69. Earlier, India had achieved its best performance with 65 medals at the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, China.

So far, India has won a total of 672 medals at the Asian Games, including 155 gold, 201 silver and 316 bronze. Among all countries, India ranks fifth while China tops with 3187 medals. China has won 1473 gold, 994 silver and 720 bronze medals. At the 2018 Asian Games, India won a total of 70 medals, including 16 gold, 23 silver and 31 bronze. India was ranked 8th in the medal table of the 2018 Asian Games.

This time, India will try to break the record set at the last Asian Games. India’s hopes in these Asian Games rest on Neeraj Chopra, Kidambi Srikanth, Lakshya Sen, PV Sindhu, Nikhat Zareen, Praggnanand, Bhavani Devi, Mirabai Chanu and the cricket team.

Meanwhile, China has discriminated against Indian players and denied them participation in the Asian Games. Reacting to China’s action, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said the Indian government has come to know that the Chinese authorities have deliberately and systematically denied recognition and admission to the 19th Asian Games to some Indian players from Arunachal Pradesh. They have been discriminated against by denying them participation