The 18th Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang are making headlines in India as Indian athletes continue to make India proud by winning medals in various sports.

At Asian Games, India participated in 34 sports out of the total 40. There are at least 312 men and 258 women athletes from India who participated in the sporting extravaganza. India won 57 medals at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea that included 37 bronze, 9 silver, and 11 gold medals.

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Hours after India winning a gold in rowing, only their second in the Asian Games history, team coach Nicolae Gioga from Romania said he was fired from his job by the national association.

The tussle between coach Gioga and the Indian rowers have been existing for a while and the matters came to a head on Thursday (August 23). Indian rowers were in five finals but failed to win any medal. The distaste in the camp prevailed even after a gold on Friday and Gioga made no effort to hide it either.

The trouble started when Gioga alleged that one of the rowers – Dattu Bhokanal – gave up the race midway. He also alleged that other rowers neither train enough nor followed his methods thus became prone to injuries.

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Gioga was unsatisfied with the Indian team’s results. “I came with the goal of winning seven gold medals. I have only won one. What kind of result is this? This is a black mark on my CV,” Gioga said after the race.

In the rowers’ defence, other coaches attached with the team alleged that Gioga altered the training methods so much that it reduced the strength of the rowers.

The Rowing Federation of India (RFI) did not officially confirmed the news but indicated that the issue will be discussed in details upon the team’s return to India.

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He was signed by the Rowing Federation because Gioga often produced the results as a coach. The 66-year-old Romanian had won five gold medals with the Romanian national team at the 1996 and 2000 Olympics before coaching teams in Asia, including China and Iran. At the 2017 Asian Rowing Championships, he coached Iran to five gold medals.

India now has more than 25 medals at Asian Games 2018 in Indonesia.

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Published by Bhaumik Raja on 25 Aug 2018