The target for the contingent will be made known when Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim presides over the flag-handing ceremony on Sept 11.
The Malaysian contingent bagged seven golds, 13 silvers and 16 bronzes at the Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games five years ago.
Bowling and squash were outstanding with two golds each while sailing, sepak takraw and track cycling contributed one each.
Rafiq Ismail bagged the men’s Masters top prize while the other bowling gold came from the women’s trios (Esther Cheah, Siti Safiyah Amirah Abdul Rahman and Syaidatul Afifah Badrul Hamidi).
Squash queen Datuk Nicol David retained her women’s singles title while the men’s team led by Ng Eain Yow turned the tables on favourites Hong Kong.
The sepaktakraw squad capitalised on the absence of Thailand to claim the men’s regu gold while young sailor Mohd Fauzi Kaman Shah romped to victory in the men’s Open Laser 4.7 event.
Then there was Azizulhasni Awang, who lived up to his billing as one of the world’s best track cyclists by winning the sprint gold.
But there is no bowling this time as China omitted the sport despite its inclusion in the programme when the country last hosted the Asiad in 2010 in Guangzhou.
Nicol at her prime then was almost a shoo-in for gold in the women’s singles but the reality now is, none of the athletes competing in the upcoming Asiad from Sept 23-Oct 8 boast such a reputation.
There are high hopes on Azizul and teammate Mohd Shah Firdaus Sahrom to strike gold in the keirin and individual sprint, but they will need to be on top of their game on race day to fend off their Japanese and Chinese rivals.
The squash players go into the Asian Games with a 50-50 chance of winning in their events while it remains to be seen if the karate exponents can kick their way to golden glory in Hangzhou.
The karate team only managed to snatch three bronze medals at the Asian Karate Championships in Melaka two months ago and a lot of groundwork is currently taking place to whip the exponents into strong contenders.
The odds are also against the wushu team as they are competing on Chinese soil and they need to be super consistent throughout two days of competition.
For the Asian Games, wushu medallists will be decided from combining the scores of two events unlike the world championships.
One can forget about diving contributing to the gold medal count as China are a class above the rest of the world at this point, especially the women divers.
But more than the gold medal count, the more important indicator for the National Sports Council (NSC) and Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) will be the individual performance of the athletes.
Especially those who are under the Road To Gold (RTG) programme. Athletes need to be ranked inside the world’s top 10 or have a realistic chance to qualify for Paris Olympics – these are the requirements to be in the RTG programme.
The RTG is a programme for the elite athletes and it goes without saying that one should be expecting the athlete to be able to finish on the Asian Games podium.
It is an achievable target for certain sports like hockey, diving and track cycling but harder to realise in blue-riband sports like athletics and swimming.
The athletes competing in athletics and swimming at the Asian Games are world class, so it will be a good test for the likes of sprinter Mohd Azeem Fahmi, runner Shereen Samson Vallabouy and swimmer Khiew Hoe Yean to test their readiness to take it one step further in Hangzhou.
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