HANGZHOU: Age is only a quantity in sports activities. It might sound cliched, however performed out factually on the nineteenth Asian Games, the place India’s youngest and the oldest medallists are separated by a whopping 50 yr age hole between them.
Roller skating bronze medallist Sanjana Bathula and double squash bronze medallist Anahat Singh, each 15, have an age distinction of simply three months. But in comparison with 65-year-old Bridge silver medallist Jaggy Shivdasani, there’s a full technology’s hole between the trio. However, the pedestal they share has the identical title — Asian Games medallists.
India completed its Asian Games marketing campaign with a report haul of 107 medals (28 gold, 38 silver, 41 bronze) to complete fourth (on gold-medal depend), bettering on its 2018 tally of 70 medals, which included 16 gold.
JAGGY SHIVDASANI
It was the second Asian Games medal for Shivdasani, who was additionally a part of the 2018 bronze medal males’s crew.
“You can’t be too disappointed,” Shivdasani mentioned after the lads’s crew misplaced to Hong Kong within the remaining. “At the start, if you had told me we would get a silver medal, I would have taken it and said ‘let’s not play’,”
Bridge was included within the Asian Games roster in 2018, however the 1958-born Shivdasani turned a famous participant when he received the Holkar Trophy in 1976, adopted by a collection of nationwide titles.
He was the primary non-North American to win the Spingold Knockout Teams in 1987, which incorporates groups which have gamers from completely different nations.
Shivdasani introduced his age into context when he was requested if Bridge will grow to be an Olympic self-discipline.
“I don’t know if I will still be around, but I hope it does become an Olympic sport. That would be great,” he mentioned.
Shivdasani’s teammates on the rostrum are additionally from his period and embody Ajay Khare (age 64), Raju Tolani (62), Rajeshwar Tewari (60), Sandeep Thakral (49) and Sumit Mukherjee (49).
ANAHAT SINGH
Anahat, or Annie to her teammates, is in the identical boat as all different Indian squash gamers far as squash’s hopes of changing into an Olympic self-discipline are involved. But the Tenth-standard, 15 yr outdated scholar of Delhi’s British School has age on her facet to probably dwell the Olympic dream.
In the identical crew as India’s squash greats like Dipika Pallikal and Joshna Chinappa, Anahat was not even born when Dipika and Joshna turned professional on the circuit. Tanvi Khanna was the fourth member of the crew.

The alternative to share the stage with them and stand on the Asian Games podium as the ladies’s crew bronze medallists will not be one thing many 15-year-old gamers obtain.
“It was just an amazing experience playing the Asian Games, let alone getting a medal,” mentioned Anahat after profitable the ladies’s crew bronze.
She went on so as to add the blended doubles bronze to her kitty in her maiden Asian Games look, partnering Abhay Singh.
“It’s always an athlete’s dream to win a medal at the big Games, and I am really lucky to have won it at such a young age at my first Asian Games,” mentioned Anahat.
After enjoying badminton initially, Anahat picked up the game watching her elder sister play and accompanying her to tournaments.
The Indian girls’s crew misplaced to Hong Kong within the semis to face a spot under on the rostrum in Hangzhou, in comparison with their silver-medal end at Jakarta 2018.
“There was no disappointment. We still won a medal, but I feel we could have done a little better,” mentioned Anahat, who has set huge targets for herself as knowledgeable squash participant.
“It will be great if I can become the world champion or world No. 1.”
SANJANA BATHULA
15 yr outdated Sanjana is the youngest of the Indian medallists on this version of the Games. She was a part of the ladies’s relay crew that received bronze in curler skating. However, it was her teammates Karthika Jagadeeswaran, Heeral Sadhu and Aarathy Kasturi Raj who competed to clock 4:34.861 and end third.
Chinese Taipei received gold with a timing of 4:19.447, whereas South Korea (4:21.146) received silver.