India closes the Asian Games in fourth place, 21 golds to Uzbekistan's 21

India closed the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya in fourth place, with 85 medals: 21 gold, 27 silver and 37 bronze. The last gold came on Saturday, when the men's hockey team beat the field for a second straight Asian title and, with it, a place at the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028. Uzbekistan also finished on 21 golds, with 25 silvers and 24 bronzes, 70 medals in all. More silver is what puts India above Uzbekistan. China led the table with 169 golds and 341 medals. South Korea was next, on 39 golds and 150 medals.

The hockey result is a title defence, which India had not managed in this event before, and a qualification. Los Angeles is the point of the gold for the players who will still be eligible in 2028. The rest of the 21 golds are a mixed book, and several of them are firsts rather than repeats.

Kumkum Anil Mohod became the first Indian woman to win the individual recurve. The women's recurve team ended a South Korean hold on that event that had lasted 28 years. Neeru Dhanda's trap gold ended a 48-year wait in that event, and the mixed trap pair of Dhanda and Kynan Chenai set an Asian record. Pranavi Urs won India's first golf gold at the Games. In the boxing hall India took three golds, and Lovlina Borgohain became the second Indian woman, after Mary Kom, to win an Asian Games boxing title. The men's cricket side beat Pakistan by 19 runs in the final at Nisshin, 211 for 6 against 192 for 6, and kept the gold it won at Hangzhou in 2022.

The comparison with Hangzhou is the number Indian officials will be asked about. India left those Games with 106 medals. Aichi-Nagoya has produced 85. Fourth place is the same neighbourhood as last time, and the gold count of 21 is enough to stay ahead of Iran, on 19 golds, and Thailand, on 18. It is not enough to catch South Korea. The drop from 106 to 85 is real. It is also not a single-sport collapse. The Games added events and dropped others between editions, and a medal table does not adjust for that. What it does show is that India gathered more silver than Uzbekistan and used the last day, in hockey, to lock the tie on gold.

The closing ceremony is scheduled for Sunday in Aichi-Nagoya, with the Games having opened on 19 September. Forty-five national Olympic committees were on the start lists. By the time the flag comes down, the argument will already have moved to which of the 21 golds can be repeated in 2028, and which were a one-cycle peak. Hockey has a direct line to Los Angeles. Golf, trap and the recurve events have a different calendar. The table itself is settled: China, South Korea, then Japan in the usual front rank, India fourth on the silver tie-break, Uzbekistan fifth.

For the athletes still in Japan on Sunday morning, the practical remainder is the ceremony and the flight. For the count, the useful detail is the tie-break. Twenty-one golds were not enough on their own. Twenty-seven silvers were.