Doha: India's overall show in the athletics event of the Asian Games was a disaster, marked by a sharp decline in gold medal haul and below par performances by many of them.

If the athletes were the toast of the nation in the last edition of the Games in Busan where they captured as many as seven gold, six silver and four bronze medals, the measly collection of medal this time around speaks volumes of India's current standard at the Asian level.

The women's 4x400 relay team, comprising Sati Geetha, Manjeet Kaur, K Chitra and Pinki Pramanik, was the only one to win a gold medal, saving India the blushes on the very last day of competitions.

Many of the athletes were regarded as medal prospects when they left for Doha but winning just one gold, four silver and four bronze medal hardly did justice for sending a 42-member contingent for the Games.

There were some unheralded athletes such as Santhi Soundarajan and O P Jaisha who came to the big stage without any expectations and returned home with silver and bronze medals respectively.

Santhi turned out to be the surprise package by clinching a silver medal in the women's 800 m run with a creditable timing but the same cannot be said of many of the other athletes who failed to come anywhere near their best timing or their best throw.