In a stunning show of dominance, India clinched five gold on the final day to top the medal tally for first time in the history of Asian Athletics Championships, pushing China to second spot, in their most successful campaign in the continental flagship event here on Sunday.
With today's 5 gold, 1 silver and 3 bronze, India ended the four-day championships on top with 29 medals (12 gold, 5 silver and 12 bronze), their highest ever medal haul.
The host country, however, suffered a huge setback as their 800m runner Archana Adhav was disqualified, after being initially declared as the gold medal winner, for pushing Sri lankan rival Nimali Waliwarsha Konda from behind near the finishing line.
Sri lanka won their protest and the gold medal was awarded to their athlete Konda. India requested to reconsider the decision but the jury of technical delegates refused, saying that it was an unanimous decision to disqualify Archana.
It was heptathlete Swapna Barman who gave India the first gold of the day (after Archana was qualified) as she collected a total of 5942 points from the seven events.
The 20-year-old from Bengal collapsed just after crossing the 800m race, the last of the seven events, and she was taken for immediate medical attention.
After that lakhsmanan Govindan took the centrestage as he grabbed his second gold of the championships by winning the men's 10,000m event in 29 minute and 55.87 seconds. He and eventual silver winner compatriot Gopi Thonkanal (29:58.89) had enough energy in their tank to have a sprint contest towards the end. lakhsmanan turned out to be the most successful Indian as he had already won a gold in the 5000m race on the opening day.
World junior record holder javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra struggled in his initial attempts but got his touch in time to clinch the gold with a final throw of 85.23m.
India fittingly wrapped up the championships by winning gold in the men's and women's 4x400m relay races to send the packed crowd to wild celebrations. The men's quartet of Kunhu Muhammad, Muhammad Anas, Rajiv Arokia and Amoj Jacob clocked 3 minute 2.92 seconds to win the relay race, while the women's team of Nirmala Sheoran, M Povamma, Jisna Mathew and Debashree Mazumdar clocked 3:31.34 to ran away winners.