UKPSC Prelims 2024 General Studies Paper-I · Question 99 of 147

Correct — A, 28.

India won 28 gold medals at the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, held from 23 September to 8 October 2023. India's official tally is 28 gold, 38 silver and 40 bronze — 106 medals — and fourth place in the medal table.

The figure at the close of the Games was 41 bronze and 107 in all; a women's boxing bronze was later revoked for an anti-doping violation, so both numbers circulate. The gold count is unaffected.

The 28 golds are easy to rebuild sport by sport: shooting 7, athletics 6, compound archery 5, cricket, kabaddi and squash 2 each, and one each in men's hockey, badminton, tennis and equestrian dressage.

The idea to carry away: a medal tally is four numbers, and the stem names which one it wants. Here it wants gold, so 28, not the silver figure or the total.

• (b)
  38 — 38 is the number of silver medals India won at Hangzhou, not gold — the middle of the three colours, and close enough to 28 to look plausible.

  The stem asks for gold, and gold was 28. Reading 38 as the answer means reading the wrong column of the same tally.

• (c)
  26 — 26 is two short of the actual figure. India's Hangzhou tally was 28 gold, 38 silver and 40 bronze, and 26 matches none of those three numbers.

  A near-miss like this is defeated by rebuilding the golds by sport: shooting alone gave 7, athletics 6 and compound archery 5, which is already 18 before the team sports are counted.

• (d)
  36 — 36 sits between India's gold count of 28 and its silver count of 38, and equals neither. Nor is it the total, which is 106.

  Japan (52 gold) and South Korea (42 gold) were the two nations directly above India, so 36 is not the gold figure of either nation directly above India either.

A Games medal table lists each nation's gold, silver, bronze and total. The Asian Games rank nations by gold first, then silver, then bronze, so a country with more total medals can sit below one with more golds.

Hangzhou shows this: South Korea had 190 medals to Japan's 188, but Japan's 52 golds placed it second and South Korea's 42 placed it third. India's 28 golds, and 106 medals, gave it fourth place.

• The 19th Asian Games were held in Hangzhou, China, from 23 September to 8 October 2023, a year later than planned because of COVID-19.
• India's official tally is 28 gold, 38 silver and 40 bronze, 106 medals, and fourth place in the medal table; the close-of-Games figure was 41 bronze and 107.
• China topped the table with 201 gold medals; Japan (52 gold) and South Korea (42 gold) were second and third.
• India's previous best was 70 medals, including 16 gold, at Jakarta–Palembang 2018, where it finished eighth.
• Shooting gave India 7 gold medals and athletics 6, including Neeraj Chopra's javelin gold; compound archers won 5, one in each of the five compound events.
• India won both the men's and women's gold in cricket and in kabaddi, and the men's hockey gold by beating Japan in the final.
• Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty won the men's doubles, India's first Asian Games gold in badminton.
• India's first gold at Hangzhou came on 25 September 2023 in the men's 10 m air rifle team event.
• Harmanpreet Singh and Lovlina Borgohain carried the flag at the opening ceremony; P. R. Sreejesh carried it at the closing.
• The 20th Asian Games are scheduled for Aichi–Nagoya, Japan, in September–October 2026.

• The tally has four numbers. 38 is silver and 106 is the total (107 before a boxing bronze was revoked for an anti-doping violation); the stem asks for gold, which is 28.
• Athletics gave India the most medals (29) but shooting gave the most golds (7). 'Most medals' and 'most golds' are different questions with different answers.
• The Asian Games and the Asian Para Games were held in Hangzhou about two weeks apart in 2023, and India's tallies at the two are different numbers.
• The edition is branded 'Hangzhou 2022' but was held in 2023; a question using either year means the same Games.
• Cricket and kabaddi brought India two golds each (men's and women's); hockey brought one, because the women's team took bronze.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which sport contributed the largest number of gold medals to India's tally at the 19th Asian Games, Hangzhou?

  • (a)Athletics
  • (b)Shooting
  • (c)Archery
  • (d)Cricket
  Answerb — Shooting gave India 7 gold medals, the most of any sport. Athletics gave 6 gold (though the most medals overall, 29), compound archery 5, and cricket 2 (men's and women's).
• practice — not a real PYQ

  India's first gold medal at the 19th Asian Games, Hangzhou, came in which event?

  • (a)Women's cricket
  • (b)Men's 10 m air rifle team
  • (c)Women's 50 m rifle three positions
  • (d)Men's javelin throw
  Answerb — The men's 10 m air rifle team of Rudrankksh Patil, Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar and Divyansh Singh Panwar won India's first gold on 25 September 2023.

  Women's cricket gold came later the same day; Sift Kaur Samra's 50 m rifle 3P gold and Neeraj Chopra's javelin gold came on later days.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  At the 19th Asian Games, India won gold in both the men's and the women's competitions of which pair of sports?

  • (a)Hockey and kabaddi
  • (b)Cricket and kabaddi
  • (c)Cricket and hockey
  • (d)Kabaddi and squash
  Answerb — Both Indian cricket teams and both Indian kabaddi teams won gold. Hockey fails because the women's team won bronze, and squash fails because the women's team won bronze while the men's team won gold.
• practice — not a real PYQ

  Where did India finish in the final medal table of the 19th Asian Games, Hangzhou 2023?

  • (a)3rd
  • (b)4th
  • (c)5th
  • (d)8th
  Answerb — India's 28 golds placed it 4th, behind China (201 gold), Japan (52) and South Korea (42). 3rd was South Korea's place, 8th was India's place at Jakarta–Palembang 2018, and 5th is neither.