However, this in no way means that the Indian contingent has done worse than their performance in 2018. There is actually a lot to celebrate.
First the big positives.
There were up to four different sports in the Birmingham edition where India passed the medal count (ranking on a medal count is determined by the number of gold medals won, followed by silver and bronze). These sports were wrestling, weightlifting, badminton, and table tennis.
In wrestling Indian athletes have won a total of 12 medals, with 50% of those medals (6) being gold. India also collected one silver and five bronze medals in wrestling, both male and female disciplines. The next best wrestling nation a CWG 2022 it was Canada. The Canadians also collected 12 medals in all, but they had three gold, five silver and four bronze medals.
Bajrang Punia. (Photo Reuters)
In weightlifting the total medal count for Team India was 10 medals, with three golds, three silvers, and four bronze medals. The second best weightlifting nation was England. They finished with 10 medals, including three golds, one silver and one bronze.
In Badminton, the Indian shuttles won a total of 6 medals. This included golds for PV Sindu And Laksya Sen respectively in the female and male singles and a gold for Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty in the male double. Unsurprisingly, the second best badminton nation at CWG 2022 was Malaysia, with 5 medals, including two gold, one silver and two bronze.
Also in table tennis, India finished at the top of the medal table in Birmingham, with a total of 7 medals, which included as many as four golds, one silver and two medals. India beat Singapore to the top of the TT count, with Singaporeans also finishing with 7 medals in all, but one less gold. Their final count said: three golds, two silvers and two bronzes.
Indian athletes also performed exceptionally well in the rings. Overall, India came second in boxing medal tally, with 7 medals. Team India collected three gold, one silver and three bronze medals in boxing at CWG 2022. Northern Ireland that topped the boxing medal count also had 7 medals in all, but had two more gold medals than India.
The only missing sport that hurt India’s overall medal tally was shooting. The sport had netted up to 16 medals in the 2018 edition of the CWG, where India won a total of 66 medals. This time, however, India won medals in sports such as lawn bowls, in which they had not won any medals before this, and also in women’s cricket, which made its CWG debut.
(Photo PTI)
Let’s now take a quick look at how India fared in sports this time in Birmingham compared to their performance in 2018 in the Gold Coast edition of the Games.
The most significant improvement was in athletics.
In 2018 the Indian won three medals in track and field. That number jumped to eight this time in Birmingham. More than just an increase in the number of medals won, what made the overall performance even more special were the historic medals won for Team India.
In the 3000 meters men’s hedges Avinash Sable improved his national record by becoming the first non-Kenyan athlete to reach the podium in this discipline for the first time since the 1994 edition, with his silver medal. He is also the first Indian ever to win a CWG medal in this event. Eldhose Paul and Abdulla Aboobacker’s incredible gold-silver win in the men’s triple jump event made headlines everywhere. It was the first time that an Indian had won the gold medal in the men’s triple jump event and also the first time that two Indians had stood on the podium in the event. Annu Rani also joined the historical list by becoming the first Indian javelin thrower to win a CWG medal by taking a bronze medal. Priyanka Gosvami broke a three-year national record by becoming the first Indian walker to win a medal at the CWG. She won a silver in the women’s 10,000m walking race. Tejaswin Shankar’s bronze in men’s high jump made him the first Indian to win a CWG medal in high jump. Murali Sreesahankar’s silver in the men’s long jump was also a historic milestone.
Eldhose Paul (right) and Abdulla Aboobacker. (Photo AP)
While the total number of medals won in boxing has dropped from nine to seven in this edition compared to that of 2018, historic medals in the Lawn Bowls and women’s cricket have been a big hit in the arm for Indian sport in general.
The medal count in weightlifting also increased by one, from nine to ten from the 2018 to the 2022 edition.
Bearing in mind the fact that there would be no shooting this time, TimesofIndia.com had predicted around 60 medals for India before the Games started. India finished with 61 medals.
Overall, the total number of medals may have dropped from 66 to 61 this time from the 2018 Games, but there is a lot to celebrate and be proud of if you are a fan of Indian sports.
