India at the 1951 Asian Games explained

India hosted and participated in the 1951 Asian Games held in New Delhi from 4 to 11 March 1951, the inaugural edition of the Asian Games. India was ranked second with 15 gold medals, 16 silver medals and 20 bronze medals in the overall medal table, only behind Japan.

Kanti Shah won India's first-ever Asian Games medal with a silver in men's 100 m backstroke swimming. Sachin Nag won India's first-ever gold medal at the Asian Games in men's 100 m freestyle swimming. The India national football team won the gold medal in the men's football competition.

As of the conclusion of the 2022 Asian Games, 1951 remains the only edition where India won gold medals in diving, swimming and water polo. It also remains the only edition where India won any medals in cycling. India's 34 medals (10G, 12S, 12B) in athletics remains its best-ever performance at the Asian Games.

Medal summary

Medals by sport

Medals by sport
Sport	Rank	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
Athletics	2	10	12	12	34
Diving	1	2	1	1	4
Swimming	3	1	1	4	6
Football	1	1	0	0	1
25px Water polo	1	1	0	0	1
25px Cycling	2	0	1	2	3
Weightlifting	3	0	1	1	2
Total	2	15	16	20	51

Medals by day

Medals by day
Day	Date	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	4 March	0	0	0	0
2	5 March	0	1	0	1
3	6 March	0	0	4	4
4	7 March	1	0	2	3
5	8 March	1	2	3	6
6	9 March	1	0	2	3
7	10 March	7	11	2	20
8	11 March	5	2	7	14
	Total	15	16	20	51

Medals by gender

Medals by gender
Gender	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
25px Male	15	14	15	44
25px Female	0	2	5	7
Total	15	16	20	51

Medalists

Medal	Name[1]	Sport	Event	Date
				7 March
				8 March
				9 March
				10 March
				10 March
				10 March
				10 March
	Amit Singh Bakshi Govind Singh Balwant Singh Karnan Singh			10 March
				10 March
			Men's team[2]	10 March
				11 March
				11 March
				11 March
				11 March
				11 March
				5 March
				8 March
				8 March
				10 March
	Kulwant Singh			10 March
	Pritam Singh			10 March
	Teja Singh			10 March
	B. Das			10 March
				10 March
				10 March
				10 March
				10 March
	Dhangar Lhanguard Raj Kumar Mehra Madan Mohan Gurdev Singh			10 March
	Ashu Dutt			10 March
				11 March
				11 March
				6 March
				6 March
				6 March
				6 March
				7 March
				7 March
	Gurbachan Singh			8 March
	Kesar Singh			8 March
	Kishen Singh			8 March
	Khurshid Ahmed			9 March
				9 March
				10 March
				10 March
	Govind Singh			11 March
	Ajit Singh			11 March
	Surat Singh Mathur			11 March
				11 March
				11 March
				11 March
	T. T. Dand			11 March

Aquatics

Diving

See main article: Diving at the 1951 Asian Games.

Athletes	Event	Final
		Result	Rank
K. P. Thakkar	align=left rowspan=2	Men's 3 m springboard	371.25
Ashu Dutt	327.20
K. P. Thakkar	align=left rowspan=2	Men's 10 m platform	362.05
T. T. Dand	276.60

Swimming

See main article: Swimming at the 1951 Asian Games.

Athletes	Event[3] [4] [5]	Heats		Final
		Result	Rank	Result	Rank
Sachin Nag	align=left rowspan=2	Men's 100 m freestyle	1:04.1	2	1:04.7
Isaac Mansoor		2		6
Bimal Chandra	align=left rowspan=2	Men's 400 m freestyle	5:32.5
Santosh Bhattacharya		5
	align=left rowspan=2	Men's 800 m freestyle	11:35.0	4
Santosh Bhattacharya	14:15.0	6
	align=left rowspan=2	Men's 1500 m freestyle		5
Santosh Bhattacharya
Kanti Shah	align=left rowspan=2	Men's 100 m backstroke	1:17.0
Pratap Mitra		5
Jehangir Naegamwalla	align=left rowspan=2	Men's 200 m breaststroke	3:11.0
Bhubaneswar Pandey	3:14.1	6
Isaac Mansoor Bimal Chandra Sambhu Saha Sachin Nag	Men's 4 x 100 m freestyle relay	4:28.8
Kanti Shah Jehangir Naegamwalla Sachin Nag	Men's 3 x 100 m medley relay	3:43.6

Water polo

See main article: Water polo at the 1951 Asian Games.

Gold medal match

Athletics

See main article: Athletics at the 1951 Asian Games.

Men

Track events

Athletes	Event[6] [7]	Heats		Semifinal		Final
		Result	Rank	Result	Rank	Result	Rank
Lavy Pinto	100 m	10.7	1	11.0	1	10.8
Alfred Shamin		11.0	1	11.2	2		4
Lavy Pinto	200 m	22.1	1	22.0
Marian Gabriel		22.7	1	22.5
Amit Singh Bakshi	400 m	50.6	1	50.8
Govind Singh			2	51.4
Ranjit Singh	800 m	1:59.3
Kulwant Singh						1:59.7
Nikka Singh	1500 m	4:04.1
Sadhu Singh						5
Pritam Singh	5000 m	15:57.8
Jang Singh
Gurbachan Singh	10000 m	34:58.8
Gulzar Singh Mann						4
Bagh Singh	110 m hurdles		3			5
Cleure D'Classe			2
Teja Singh	400 m hurdles	56.9
Cleure D'Classe							4
Ajit Singh	3000 m steeplechase	9:37.8
Gulzar Singh Mann
Lavy Pinto Marian Gabriel Ram Swaroop Alfred Shamin	4 x 100 m relay	43.0	1	42.8
Amit Singh Bakshi Govind Singh Balwant Singh Karnan Singh	4 x 400 m relay	3:24.2

Field events

Athletes	Event[8]	Qualification		Final
		Result	Rank	Result	Rank
Mehanga Singh Sidhu	High jump	1.83			4
K. Chatterjee				colspan="2"
Baldev Singh	Long jump	6.99
Sohan Ram					5
P. S. Cheema	Triple jump			6
P. Beck
Makhan Singh	Discus throw	39.92
Amar Singh					4
Somnath Chopra	Hammer throw	43.35
Kishen Singh				42.32
Parsa Singh	Javelin throw	50.38
Surat Singh
Khurshid Ahmed	Pole vault	3.61		4
S. Chakravarty
Madan Lal	Shot put	13.78
Ishar Singh					5

Road events

Athletes	Event[9] [10]	Final
		Result	Rank
Chhota Singh	Marathon	2:42:58.6
Surat Singh Mathur		2:53:49.8
Mahabir Prasad	10 km walk	52:31.4
Kesar Singh		52:54.0
Bakhtawar Singh	50 km walk	5:44:07.4
B. Das		5:44:14.6

Combined events

Athlete	Event	Category	100 m	LJ	SP	HJ	400 m	110H	DT	PV	JT	1500 m	Total	Rank
Khurshid Ahmed	Decathlon	Result	12.0	6.11	9.07	1.47	55.2	17.4	27.95	3.36	46.93	5:17.2	5110
		Points	651	610	430	367	591	583	424	446	543	465
Gurnam Singh		Result	12.5	5.66	11.46	1.62		2124
		Points	566	514	574	480

Women

Track events

Athletes	Event	Heats		Final
		Result	Rank	Result	Rank
Roshan Mistry	100 m	12.9	2	12.8
Pat Mendonca		13.1	2		4
Mary D'Souza	200 m	28.0
Banoo Gulzar			4
Nilima Ghose	80 m hurdles			5
Violet Peters					6
Mary D'Souza Roshan Mistry Banoo Gulzar Pat Mendonca	4 x 100 m relay	51.9

Field events

Athletes	Event[11]	Final
		Result	Rank
Marie Semoes	High jump	1.37
Marjorie Soares		1.37	4
Sylvia Gauntlet	Long jump	4.52
Veronica Game			4
Bhagi Thadani	Discus throw		4
Barbara Webster			5
Barbara Webster	Javelin throw	26.70
Bhagi Thadani			5
Barbara Webster	Shot put	9.02
Usha Rajaram			4

Basketball

See main article: Basketball at the 1951 Asian Games.

Squad[12]	Event	Round robin	Rank
India men's national basketball team Ranbir Chopra (C) Davinder Nath Bahri Dharampal Chum Ram Prakash Avnish Chander Soni Gur Prasad Lakshmi S. V. Appayya Kapoor	Men's team	L 52–63	4
		L 46–70
		W 50–47
		L 38–86

Cycling

See main article: Cycling at the 1951 Asian Games.

Athlete	Event[13]	Time	Rank
Netai Chand Bysack	Men's 1000 m time trial	1:22.2
Suprovat Chakravarty		1:22.9	4
Rohinton Noble	Men's 1000 m sprint
Bapoo Malcolm Sr.			4
Dhangar Lhanguard Raj Kumar Mehra Madan Mohan Gurdev Singh	Men's 4000 m team pursuit

Football

See main article: Football at the 1951 Asian Games.

Roster

Coach: Syed Abdul Rahim

Gold medal match

All times are India Standard Time

Weightlifting

See main article: Weightlifting at the 1951 Asian Games.

Athlete	Event[14]	Clean & press		Snatch		Clean & jerk		Total (lb)	Rank
		Result (lb)	Rank	Result (lb)	Rank	Result (lb)	Rank
R. Desai	align=left rowspan=2	Men's bantamweight 56 kg	145	6	160	6	210	6	515	6
V. W. Phenany	125	7	160	6	195	7	480	7
G. Sethuraman	Men's featherweight 60 kg	190	4	185	2	270	1	645	4
B. N. Ghosh	align=left rowspan=2	Men's lightweight 67.5 kg	175	5	170	6	245	4	590	5
Daniel Pon Mani	210	1	200	2	-		410
J. D. Telang	align=left rowspan=2	Men's light heavyweight 82.5 kg	190	4	180	4	250	3	620	4
N. K. Nair	180	5	170	5	220	4	570	5
Kamineni Eswara Rao	Men's middle heavyweight 90 kg	200	2	205	2	250	3	655
Dandamudi Rajagopal	Men's heavyweight +90 kg	220	2	210	3	295	2	725

Notes and References

1. Web site: Asian Games 1951 Indian medal winners.
2. Web site: The Golden Years of Indian Football. www.chaseyoursport.com. Chase Your Sport. Kolkata. Rounak. Majumdar. 22 April 2019. 28 January 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20201107230046/https://www.chaseyoursport.com/Football/The-Golden-Years-of-Indian-Football/659. 7 November 2020.
3. Web site: The Indian Express (7 March 1951).
4. Web site: The Indian Express (8 March 1951).
5. Web site: The Indian Express (9 March 1951).
6. Web site: The Indian Express (12 March 1951).
7. Web site: The Indian Express (13 March 1951).
8. Web site: Athletics Results - 1951 Asian Games.
9. Web site: The Indian Express (12 March 1951).
10. Web site: The Indian Express (13 March 1951).
11. Web site: Athletics Results - 1951 Asian Games.
12. Web site: International Players (Senior) from Punjab Basketball Association.
13. Web site: The Indian Express (11 March 1951).
14. Web site: The Indian Express (10 March 1951).