Indian athletes shine in CWG

ByPress Release, SportsCafe Editor

04/18/2018

Indians back home and everywhere across the world were in for a treat in the two CWG weeks where they witnessed multiple records being broken and created. With a medal tally of 66, of which 26 were golds and 20 silver and bronze medals each, India finished 3rd best behind Australia and England.

4th April, 2018 witnessed 200 odd Indian athletes take center stage at Carrara Stadium, Gold Coast, for the Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony, amidst a sea of roaring supporters, absorbing the energy around them and radiating pride and confidence. Four years of dedicated practice and careful training had all come down to these two weeks down under. The Indian contingent, overflowing with talent, was expected to produce historic results and boy, did they live up to those expectations!

Multiple moments of sporting excellence come to mind when we think of the recently concluded Games. 15 year old shooter Anish Bhanwala became India's youngest gold medallist at the Commonwealth Games! Stalwarts Sushil Kumar, Mary Kom, and Saina Nehwal defied age and naysayers to take home the yellow metal. Neeraj Chopra's javelin throw and Seema Punia's silver medal in Shotput ensured that athletics finds place in Indian hearts. Mohd. Anas and Jinson Johnson's national record breaking runs and Hima Das's charisma solidified this place as well! Manika Batra became the first Indian woman to win the Table Tennis singles gold medal grabbing an overall haul of 4 medals! Ashwini Ponappa's resilience was the talk of the town on the penultimate day of the games, with her playing a mammoth 4 matches in quick succession!

India raked in a total of 14 medals in the racket events with 8 coming to the table tennis stars and 6 going to the shuttlers. The team events were dominated by the Indians as the women's table tennis team and the badminton mixed team won their historic maiden gold medals while the men's table tennis team claimed the gold medal after a 12 year long wait. Medals came from 9 disciplines out of 15 that Indians participated in - how's that for diversity!

The GoSports contingent had 14 athletes representing India across 7 disciplines. Making up a small percentage of the 218 member contingent, our athletes were involved in as many as 9 medals of the 66 medals that India raked in.

Our Executive Director, Ms. Deepthi Bopaiah, was also at the Games venues, supporting and aiding our athletes. The camaraderie on display was heartening, with our shuttlers cheering Sathish on during his all-important weightlifting finals; paddler G. Sathiyan ensuring he congratulated every athlete on their performances; Anas and his relay team helping out their fallen soldier Amoj Jacob, sharing their grief together on not finishing a potential medal run. It was delightful to witness our athletes coming together as Team India, irrespective of gender or sport.

Let's take a quick glance at how our athletes fared over the two weeks of sporting celebration.

Weightlifting:

Sathish Kumar started it all for us in the 77kg Men's category! He fought injury and pain to defend his Commonwealth Gold from Glasgow. With Sathish requiring rehabilitation for an injury he picked up during his Nationals, we were able to send a trainer who assisted him on ground for three weeks. With him experiencing sudden numbness in his legs two days prior to his event, the foundation also got him access to a physiotherapist to manage the situation. Sathish went for broke during the event, and everyone's effort had suddenly paid off! Double reason to celebrate: His medal represents the first gold for an able-bodied athlete supported by GoSports Foundation in a mega event.

Powerlifting:

Sachin Chaudhary gave the Indian para contingent much to cheer as he became the sole medallist among them. His final lift was all it took to catapult him from the bottom of the ranks to third position earning him the bronze medal in the Men's Heavyweight category. Pure emotion overcame him as redemption was finally his after a forgetful 2014 Glasgow Games.

Badminton:

It was exciting and heartening to see 5 of our shuttlers play it out as a part of the badminton contingent. The highlight of their performance was definitely the elusive mixed team gold medal, which finally found its way to the Indian contingent after heroic performances by our athletes to defeat the storied Malaysian team.

Srikanth, the newly crowned World No.1, went down fighting in the men's singles finals as he met a rejuvenated Lee Chong Wei out for blood after his team event loss against Srikanth. Satwiksairaj and Chirag, the No. 1 men's duo in Indian Badminton displayed maturity eons beyond their age to reach the finals and claim the men's doubles silver medal. H.S Prannoy played his heart out in his semi finals as well as the bronze medal match. With his body yet to recover completely from injury, he finished 4th in the Singles event. Ruthvika made it to the quarter finals on the back of impressive wins only to fall victim to an unfortunate injury, forcing her to retire and concede the match to her opponent.

Athletics:

It was an at par performance in the Athletics department for us. Our serious medal contender, in the form of racewalker Manish Rawat, finished a commendable 6th position in his finals. Poovamma's performance in both her 400m and 4x400m relay events were nowhere close to her best runs. She failed to qualify for her 4oom finals and finished 7th in the 4x400m relay finals. Muhammed Anas however was in a league of his own at the Games becoming the second Indian man after the legendary Milkha Singh to qualify for the 400m finals at the Commonwealth Games. His final run ensured he finished a close fourth as he broke his own national record in the process.

Gymnastics:

In the absence of fellow GoSports athlete Dipa Karmakar, Aruna Reddy and Rakesh Patra were slotted to stretch it out at the Commonwealth Games this year. Rakesh Patra finished 8th in his Rings Finals and Aruna Reddy put up a brave face to even participate following the demise of her childhood coach the day before, as she finished 14th in the Individual All Round event.

Table Tennis:

The highest ranked Indian paddler, G. Sathiyan, had a remarkable Commonwealth debut where he bagged 3 medals - the historic men's team gold which they won after 12 years, the silver medal in the men's doubles event and the bronze medal in the mixed doubles event. Sathiyan sure knows how to catch 'em all!

Shooting:

Anjum Moudgil, our rifle expert, had two extreme performances. Her 50m Prone event witnessed her finishing 16th, owing to technical glitches which left a screw in her gun loose and affected her scores. Refusing to let that bother her, she went out all guns blazing to win the silver medal in her 50m 3P event the next day, with a record qualifying score at the Games as well. What a recovery indeed!