Neeraj Chopra delivered the most anticipated gold medal after a bonhomous yet intense battle with rising compatriot Kishore Jena as India enjoyed a glorious day at the Hangzhou Asian Games, zooming to the country’s best ever tally that promises to swell further with lots of action still to come across key disciplines.

The medals flowed in thick and fast for India in track & field and the country’s archers toppled mighty South Korea, the biggest nation in the sport, to win the mixed doubles gold in compound discipline.

India’s medal tally stood at 81, way past its previous record of 70 won in the 2018 Jakarta Games, with hockey, wrestling, squash and archery glory either expected or already guaranteed.

On the final day of track & field (except for the marathons on Thursday), Chopra, the biggest star at the Games as reigning Olympic and world champion, stepped up. His main rival Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan was out due to injury, but the event saw intense drama and a level of competition that can be credited to the heights Chopra’s exploits have taken the javelin in India.

Chopra took the early lead with throws of 82.38m and 84.49, but Jena, who began with 81.26m, produced a sensational personal best of 86.77m to snatch the lead. The champion, who seemed to be going to the motions until then, responded immediately by sending the javelin to his season’s best of 88.88m to regain the lead which he did not relinquish. Jena, however, thrilled fans at the Hangzhou Sports Park Stadium and the millions following the action back home by hurling another personal best 87.54m to inch ever closer to his idol.

It was exhilarating to watch two Indian athletes hit world-class distances in a battle for gold, but when Jena, 28, was asked how he felt after he took the lead, his reply summed up the pecking order. “Mujhe pata tha bhai saab maar hi denge (I knew my brother would definitely go farther).”

And Chopra, 25, responded with a gracious “thank you” to Jena. “Your throw pushed me to do well. Aaj maza aa gaya!” he said.

The javelin arena witnessed some early drama as Chopra’s first throw raised questions about the officials much like Jyothi Yarraji’s overturned disqualification in the 100m hurdles had. Chopra was caught by surprise after his first attempt was not measured. He took up the issue with the technical officials, who instead asked him to take the throw again.

“I really don’t know what happened. Surprisingly, they didn’t measure the first throw. Apparently, the second athlete threw before they could even measure my throw and they lost the mark thereafter. I protested but then it was quite windy and other athletes were cooling down. I thought it was unfair on them. They (technical officials) offered me to take the first throw again and I accepted,” Chopra said later.

“It was my season-ending competition so I decided to give everything I had. I am happy with my performance and the result,” he added.

Jena, who built on his impressive fifth place finish at the Budapest World Championships in August, also secured qualification for the 2024 Paris Olympics by crossing the mark of 85.50m twice.

India, who had finished Tuesday on 69 medals, one short off the Jakarta tally, found success aplenty.

One of the moments was the 4x400m relay quartet blazing to gold to end a 51-year wait. Having set the Asian record while finishing fifth in the World Championships, Muhammed Anas, Amoj Jacob, Muhammed Ajmal and Rajesh Ramesh stormed to victory in 3 minutes, 01.58 seconds, over a second ahead of Qatar (3:02.05m) and Sri Lanka (3:02.55m). The last time Indian men won the longer relay was at the 1962 Jakarta Games (Daljit Singh, Jagdish Singh, Makhan Singh and Milkha Singh).

The Indian women’s relay quartet settled for silver behind Bahrain, clocking 3:27.85.

Harmilan Bains was second again in the women’s 800m gold after finishing with the 1,500m silver, but it was a special medal in the shorter event as she emulated her mother Madhuri Saxena Singh, who had won the 800m silver at 2002 Busan.

And Avinash Sable, the 3000m steeplechase champion, saw his bid for a golden double end in a thrilling silver in the 5,000m as Bahrain’s Birhanu Balew clocked a Games record 13:17.40 with the Indian also dipping under the previous mark by clocking 13:21.09.

India’s first medal of the day was bronze in the 35km mixed team race walk, Ram Baboo, who once worked as a labourer, and Manju Rani landing a podium finish.

In compound archery, the mixed team pair of Jyothi Surekha and Ojas Deotale shot a Games record to edge out Korea’s So Chaewon and Joo Jaehoon 159-158 in the final. The teams were level on points till the end of the fourth set before the Indians sealed it. This was only the second archery gold India has won at the Games after the men’s compound team (Rajat Chauhan, Sandeep Kumar, and Abhishek Verma) won at 2014 Incheon. “It wasn’t an easy final. We fought till the last arrow but were never intimidated by the Koreans,” Surekha said.

In women’s 75kg boxing final, world champion Lovlina Borgohain lost to local favourite Li Qian in a packed Hangzhou Gymnasium. The Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist in 69kg lost to China’s two-time Olympic medallist by a unanimous decision.

India opened their account in wrestling with Sunil Kumar winning bronze in the Greco-Roman 87kg event. He beat Kazakhstan’s Atabek Azisbekov 2-1.

With badminton, squash and archery reaching the business end, and freestyle wrestling to follow, India is edging ever closer to its target of 100 medals at these Games.