Ravi Nyayapati
A turning point beckoned for Indian sport at their recent showing at the Commonwealth Games at Gold Coast, Australia, earlier this month.
Indian finished the Games with a tally of 66 medals, in what was their third most successful Commonwealth Games outing.
This 26 Gold Medals haul marked the event as one of country’s best sporting performances across disciplines.
Historic perspective
Their best performance to-date remains the 2010 New Delhi Games with 38 Golds amongst a total of 101 medals, and a second-place finish.
However, those games are known more for their innumerable controversies, unprecedented bad publicity and corruption scandals of monumental proportions.
In Manchester in 2002, they collected 64 medals and attained a fourth-place finish.
The numbers show that this was not their best effort to-date, but Gold Coast 2018 seemed to be a turning point.
Mental Shift
It was different for many reasons.
The games signalled a mental shift towards a hunger for an ultimate podium finish.
There were more Gold Medals (26) won than Silver (20) and Bronze (20).
Secondly, India took part in 16 disciplines, and managed to get medals in nine of them. This cross-discipline feat was a welcome change from the past where glory has usually come from a small range of disciplines.
Table (Tennis) turned
The headline item has to be Table Tennis.
Twenty-Two-Year-old Manika Batra claimed Gold in the Women’s Table Tennis event, an extraordinary feat given the unpopular nature of the sport in the Sub-Continent.
Suddenly, this landscape changed as Batra made history winning four medals, including two Gold. In the process, she also beat Singapore’s Feng Tianwei, who is a multiple Olympic medallist ranked fourth in the world.
In the end, Table Tennis turned out to be the country’s surprise success story.
Javelin Joy & Vinesh Phogat
Javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, the 20-year-old former junior world champion, scripted his own history by becoming the country’s first javelin thrower to win a Commonwealth Games gold. It is only the fourth individual gold in the Commonwealth Games won India in a track and field event.
The drama surrounding his victory this was equally entertaining. Chopra was cheered from the stands by fellow competitor and freestyle wrestler Vinesh Phogat, a member of the famous Phogat family whose successes led to the production of Bollywood film Dangal.
Chopra’s victory then inspired Phogat to aim for Gold in her 50 kg bout minutes later, after she rushed to the wrestling hall from Carrara Stadium where Chopra had been. Back at the wrestling hall, a sigh of relief calmed nerves of the team management as they fretted over the absence of Phogat minutes before the whistle was blown.
Phogat justified the panic and felt it was more important for the wrestler to support her friend first. “We had made a promise to each other, and at that moment I told myself that I just had to win gold as well,” she said.
It was reminiscent of a Bollywood movie. ‘Dangal Part 2’ may be on the cards.
Shooting Story
India also dominated the Shooting category, claiming most medals in the shooting range. The sense of gratification here was in the range of participant ages.
Whilst experienced Tejaswini Sawant, 37, snatched a gold and silver, young Anish Bhanwala also grabbed a Gold at just 15 years of age.
Indian shuttlers did not disappoint their huge fan following.
Badminton had already set a mark in India over the last few years, and this domination continued at the games.
India vs India
It was incredible to see “India vs India” flash on the scoreboard at the Women’s Badminton singles. And what a match that was – at one point in the game there was a 63-point rally for a shot, that was eventually won by Saina Nehwal.
Nehwal had a hard-fought comeback to reign supreme in her professional rivalry with current favourite PV Sindhu. Srikanth Kadambi had to settle for silver in the men’s singles after a fantastic run in the recent past.
Athletes evicted
On an unfortunate note, the start of the tournament threatened to put a further dent in India’s reputation for doping violations. Triple jumper Rakesh Babu and race walker Irfan Kolothum Thodi were sent packing after a needle was found in a cup in their bedroom at the Athletes Village.
The Commonwealth Games Federation found the pair’s testimony at the hearing to be “both unreliable and evasive.”
As a result, Babu and Thodi were not permitted to participate in the Games and evicted from the village with immediate effect.
The country stands third in this list. Unless a major overhaul occurs, there will always remain a lingering suspicion while getting joy of watching incredible talent.
