India finish Commonwealth Games with 66 medals

Wednesday 18th April 2018 06:11 EDT
 
 

The 2018 Commonwealth Games has become India’s third most successful CWG of all time, with a 200-plus contingent delivering 66 medals (26 golds, 20 silver and 20 bronze) to outdo the 64 from Glasgow four years ago and finish behind the 101 from Delhi in 2010 and 69 from the 2002 Melbourne Games. India’s shooters were the most successful, with a combined 16 medals (seven gold, four silver and five bronze). Also dominating were India’s table tennis and badminton players. In all, India won eight medals in TT .

Mary Kom, Saina Nehwal, Sushil Kumar, Heena Sidhu were the big winners from India’s campaign in Gold Coast, Australia. But there are also some first-timers who were competing at this level for the first time and delivered. Like 22-year-old Manika Batra, a table tennis player who entered four events in Gold Coast and bagged a medal in each of them. She won a gold in the women’s team event where India beat four-time defending champions Singapore with Manika winning both her singles matches, including one against the current world number 4.

At times playing as many as 5 matches a day, Manika managed to finish the games with another gold in the women’s singles event, again beating higher ranked Singapore players and also a silver in women’s doubles and a bronze in mixed doubles. Neeraj Chopra became the first Indian to win a CWG gold in Javelin after he threw a distance of 86.47. In fact, even his worst throw was almost an entire metre better than the athlete who won the silver.

The games also saw India find its youngest-ever gold medalist - twice! First it was Manu Bhaker, who at 16, won the gold in the 10 meter air pistol event. From the qualifying event to each shot in the final, Manu stayed in the lead and bagged the gold with a CWG record score. But just a few days later, India got a new youngest CWG gold medallist when 15-year-old Anish Bhanwala topped the field in the 25m rapid fire pistol final with a new games record score.

Can’t miss 17-year-old Mehuli Ghosh then, who also broke the CWG record in the 10 meter air rifle final but had to settle for silver after losing the shoot-off for the gold to Singapore's Martina Lindsay. Wrestler Vinesh also grabbed the spotlight in Gold Coast with a dominating performance in the final to win the gold in the 50 kg category. The win awarded by technical superiority also helping us forget the heartbreaking pictures of an injured Vinesh being ruled out of the Rio Olympics.


comments powered by Disqus



to the free, weekly Asian Voice email newsletter