Commonwealth, Game Changer for India

Commonwealth, Game Changer for India

Introduction: In a nation, where cricket overshadowed all other games and is still considered a religion, snatching attention for any other stream of sports has been very difficult. However,  a wind of change is visible which started to blow a few years back and brought a light of glory and swept across so many sports disciplines. Most categories, like boxing, wrestling, archery, hockey, shooting etc. have given us international stars and role models.

India bettered its best-ever performances consistently in the last three out of four Olympic events, with the highest ever medal tally of seven at Tokyo Olympics. If we take the Commonwealth Games, as a host nation in 2010, India broke its previous records with a swooshing 101 medals, standing only behind sporting giant Australia in rankings.

It then won 66 medals, the second best performance, in Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games. India is an emerging sporting nation as it is improving progressively in international sporting events like Commonwealth Games and the Olympics. It is continuously rising in this area. Over the past decade or so, India has been continuously improving its medal tally.

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• Indian Women in Sports Outperforming Men
• MSG Bhartiya Khel Gaon, Dedicated to Sports World

Indian Players` Performance in CWG 2022:

India competed at the Commonwealth Games 2022 Birmingham, England, from 28 July to 08 August, 2022. It was India’s 18th appearance at the Commonwealth Games. After the Tokyo Olympics, where India won an unprecedented seven medals, expectations from the country’s 2022 Commonwealth Games contingents were naturally high. Indian athletes won a total 61 medals which included 22 gold, 16 silver and 23 bronze. The side finished fourth overall, behind hosts England, Australia and Canada.

Squash player Anahat Singh became the youngest Indian athlete to compete in this Commonwealth Games at just 14 years of age and 45-year-old Lawn Bowls player Sunil Bahadur was the oldest player in the contingent.  Mirabai Chanu, a role model for many, won the gold medal in the 49kg weightlifting category. She really made us proud. Four women, Lovely Choubey, Pinki, Nayanmoni Saikia, Rupa Rani Tirkey earned gold in awn bowl. The gold medal finish by Women’s Fours in Lawn Bowls was India’s first ever medal in the event. Annu Rani’s bronze in women’s javelin throw was the first ever medal by an Indian woman in the event.

Here is the list of the Gold medals India earned this year:.

• Gold – PV Sindhu – Badminton Women’s Singles
• Gold – Lakshya Sen – Badminton Men’s Singles
• Gold – Nikhat Zareen – Boxing Women’s Light Flyweight
• Gold -Vinesh Phogat – Wrestling Women’s Freestyle 53kg
• Gold – Ravi Kumar Dahiya – Wrestling Men’s Freestyle 57kg
• Gold – Naveen – Wrestling Men’s Freestyle 74kg
• Gold – Sharath Kamal – Table Tennis men’s singles
• Gold – Nitu Ghanghas – Boxing Minimum weight
• Gold – Amit Panghal – Boxing Flyweight
• Gold – Bajrang Punia – Wrestling Men’s Freestyle 65kg
• Gold – Sakshi Malik – Wrestling Women’s Freestyle 62kg
• Gold – Deepak Punia – Wrestling Men’s Freestyle 86kg
• Gold – Mirabai Chanu – Weightlifting Women’s 49kg
• Gold – Jeremy Lalrinnunga – Weightlifting Men’s 67kg
• Gold – Achinta Sheuli – Weightlifting Men’s 73kg
• Gold – Lovely Choubey, Pinki, Nayanmoni Saikia, Rupa Rani Tirkey – Lawn Bowls Women’s Fours
• Gold – Sharath Kamal, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Harmeet Desai, Sanil Shetty – Table Tennis Men’s Team
• Gold – Sudhir – Para Powerlifting Men’s Heavyweight
• Gold – Bhavina Patel – Table Tennis Women’s Singles Classes 3-5
• Gold- Eldhose Paul- Men’s Triple Jump
• Gold – Sharath Kamal, Sreeja Akula – Table Tennis Mixed Team
• Gold – Satwik Sairaj Rankireddi and Chirag Shetty – Badminton men’s doubles

Silver medal winners for India in Commonwealth Games 2022:

• Silver – Indian Women’s Cricket Team
• Silver – Anshu Malik – Wrestling Women’s Freestyle 57kg
• Silver – Murali Sreeshankar – Men’s Long Jump
• Silver – Kidambi Srikanth, Satwik Sairaj, Sumeeth Reddy, Lakshya Sen, Chirag Shetty, Treesa Jolly, Aakarshi Kashyap, Ashwini Ponappa, Gayatri Gopichand, PV Sindhu – Badminton Mixed Team
• Silver – Sharath Kamal, G Sathiyan – Table Tennis Men’s Doubles
• Silver – Vikas Thakur – Weightlifting Men’s 96kg
• Silver – Shushila Devi Likmabam – Judo Women’s 48kg
• Silver – Bindyarani Devi – Weightlifting Women’s 55kg
• Silver – Tulika Maan – Judo Women’s +78kg
• Silver – Sanket Sargar – Weightlifting Men’s 55kg
• Silver – Avinash Sable – Men’s 3000m Steeplechase
• Silver – Priyanka Goswami – Women’s 10km Race Walk
• Silver – Dinesh Kumar, Chandan Kumar Singh, Sunil Bahadur, Navaneeth Singh – Lawn Bowls Men’s Fours
• Silver- Abdullah Aboobacker – Men’s Triple Jump
• Silver – Sagar Ahlawat – Boxing Men’s Super Heavyweight
• Silver – Indian men’s hockey team

Bronze medal winners for India in Commonwealth Games 2022:

• Bronze – Gururaja Poojary – Weightlifting Men’s 61kg’
• Bronze – Vijay Kumar Yadav – Judo Men’s 60kg
• Bronze – Harjinder Kaur – Weightlifting Women’s 71kg
• Bronze – Lovepreet Singh – Weightlifting Men’s 109kg
• Bronze – Saurav Ghosal – Squash Men’s Singles
• Bronze – Gurdeep Singh – Weightlifting Men’s 109kg+
• Bronze – Tejaswin Shankar – Men’s High Jump
• Bronze – Divya Kakran – Wrestling Women’s 68kg
• Bronze – Mohit Grewal – Wrestling Men’s 125kg
• Bronze- Jaismine- Boxing Women’s Lightweight 60kg
• Bronze – Pooja Gehlot – Wrestling Freestyle Women’s 57=0kg
• Bronze – Pooja Sihag – Wrestling Freestyle Women’s 76kg
• Bronze – Hussamuddin – Men’s Boxing Featherweight
• Bronze – Deepak Nehra – Wrestling Freestyle Men’s 97kg
• Bronze – Sonalben Patel – Para Table Tennis Women’s Singles Classes 3-5
• Bronze – Rohit Tokas – Boxing Men’s Welterweight 67kg
• Bronze – Indian Women’s Hockey Team
• Bronze- Sandeep Kumar- Men’s 10,000m Race Walk
• Bronze – Annu Rani – Women’s Javelin Throw
• Bronze – Saurav Ghosal and Dipika Palikkal – Squash Mixed Doubles
• Bronze – Kidambi Srikanth – Badminton Men’s Singles
• Bronze – Gayathri Gopichand, Treesa Jolly – Badminton Women’s Doubles
• Bronze – G. Sathiyan – Table Tennis Men’s Singles

Men Versus Women Athletes:

While India’s male athletes won a total of 35 medals for India, the women didn’t fall much behind and clinched a total of 23 medals for their nation. Women bagging medals and playing exceptionally well in sports is an indication that our country is making strides to excel in this field and marking a good global presence.

In the Olympics, Karnam Malleswari had broken the glass ceiling, by winning bronze in weightlifting at Sydney in 2000. It was the first ever medal by an Indian woman in the Olympics. Since then, Indian women sports persons have come a long way with talented women like Mary Kom, Saina Nehwal, Sindhu, Sakshi Malik, Chanu and Lovlina Borgohain rising to the occasion and winning Olympic medals. The Indian contingent’s performance in Birmingham 2022 inspired and raised hopes for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Sports Budget:

Government funding and private equity is supplementing this rise and further leading to the encouragement of sports along with a supportive audience. The government of India has increased more than Rs 300 crore in sports allocations from last year. The total budget allocated for sports currently stands at Rs 3062.60 cr. To improve sports at ground level, Government of India has increased the funding to the National Youth Empowerment Program from 108 crore to Rs 138 crore.

The Khelo India Programme’s budget has also improved from Rs 879 to Rs 974 crore. The rise of role models like Saina Nehwal, PV Sindhu, Neeraj Chopra, Geeta Phogat have also inspired thousands of young Indians to take up various sports other than cricket.

Conclusion:

In the recent past, there has also been greater international competitive exposure to Indian athletes with several world class tournaments that are being hosted by our country like the Open Boxing Tournament and Indian Open Badminton Tournament.

With dedication and passion from our athletes, support from government and private players and love from our fellow citizens, India can be and is emerging as the next sporting hub. We hope the best for the next CWG as well.