India marks National Sports Day with 50 medals at Asiad, and counting

NEW DELHI: India celebrates its National Sports Day on Wednesday, on August the 29th - the birth anniversary of hockey legend Major Dhyan Chand. Over the years, the Rashtrapati Bhawan has hosted the Sports Awards function on this day, but that will be one thing missing this year. With the Asian Games schedule overlapping, the government decided to move the function to September 25.
The best gift for the country and Dhyan Chand on Wednesday can come from the game he played and loved throughout his life.
The Indian women's hockey team takes on China in the semi-finals of the Asian Games being held in Indonesia. A win will give them a shot at winning only their second Asiad gold after 1982, when women's hockey was introduced to the quadrennial event.
But the thought that will warm the heart of India's sports fraternity today is that the country's stature in the sporting world has grown over the years.

It shows in medals like the maiden table tennis bronze (men's team), first ever badminton silver (PV Sindhu), the sepaktakraw bronze, first gold in women's wrestling (Vinesh Phogat), maiden gold in men's shot put (Tajinderpal Singh Toor), Hima Das and Dutee Chand's spirited runs and so on.
However, the growing sports culture in the country best reflects in the show of our teenager shooters like Saurabh Chaudhary (gold), Lakshay Sheoran (silver) and Shardul Vihaan (silver). It shows that the youth wants to take up sports and the government is supporting them to excel.

What also needs to be done is that people like shooter Sanjeev Rajput (silver) and runner Manjit Singh (gold), who have reportedly trained to do the country proud despite having no jobs to earn, are duly rewarded for their service to the nation.
That will make Major Dhyan Chand watching India from up above smile.