State-wise distribution of individual Asian Games gold medallists in Athletics: Punjab leads by a mile

Asian Games 2023: The most celebrated sports champions from India are often in Athletics. A look at the list of Indian gold medal winners in Athletics in the history of the Asian Games, however, shows that the majority of champions in this sport come from one particular state - Punjab.

Punjab's rate of churning out Athletics champions, however, has slowed down in recent years, and Kerala (most recently on the back of Anju Bobby George and Jinson Johnson) and Haryana (most recently on the back of Seema Punia and Neeraj Chopra) are two states which have started to take slow steps to catch up.

Furthermore, individual medallists in Athletics at the Asian Games have only come from 12 states. Out of these 12 states, only five states account for more than one gold medallist. Tamil Nadu and West Bengal are 4th and 5th on the list of states producing Asian champions in Athletics.

Punjab - 23

Milkha Singh (200m, 400m), Ajmer Singh (400m), Chhota Singh (Marathon), Parduman Singh (Shot Put, Discus), Joginder Singh (Shot Put), Makhan Singh (Discus), Balkar Singh (Discus), Bakhtawar Singh (50km walk), Mohinder Singh (Triple Jump), Sarwan Singh (100mH), Ranjit Singh (800m), Nikka Singh (1500m), Mohinder Singh Gill (Triple Jump), Hakam Singh (20km walk), Hari Chand (5000m, 10000m), Tarlok Singh (10000m), Kamaljit Sandhu (400m), Gurbachan Singh Randhawa (Decathlon), Ajit Balla (High Jump), Mohinder Singh (1500m), Sunita Rani (1500m), Arpinder Singh (Triple Jump), Tejinderpal Singh Toor (Shot Put)

Kerala - 7

TC Yohanan (Long Jump), Suresh Babu (Long Jump), MD Valsamma (400mH), PT Usha (200m, 400m, 400mH), Joseph Abraham (400mH), Preeja Sreedharan (10000m), Anju Bobby George (Long Jump), Jinson Johnson (1500m)

Haryana - 6

Manjit Singh (800m), Chand Ram (20km Walk), Bheem Singh (High Jump), Geeta Zutshi (800m), Seema Punia (Discus), Neeraj Chopra (Javelin)

Tamil Nadu - 2

Ramaswamy Gnanasekaran (200m), Charles Borromeo (800m)

West Bengal - 2

Jyotirmoyee Sikdar (800m, 1500m), Swapna Barman (Heptathlon)

Karnataka - 1

Ashwini Akkunji (400mH)

Maharashtra - 1

Lavy Pinto (100m, 200m)

Uttar Pradesh - 1

Sudha Singh (3000mSC)

Assam - 1

Bhogeshwar Baruah (800m)

Rajasthan - 1

Sriram Singh (800m)

Bihar - 1

Shivnath Singh (5000m)

Tripura - 1

Saraswati Saha (200m)