India won 61 medals at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games, just a few short of the 66 clinched at Gold Coast CWG four years ago. What makes India’s 18th appearance all the more significant is that shooting, which had contributed 16 medals to India’s Gold Coast tally, was not an event in Birmingham.
Track and Field yielded eight medals in Birmingham, with steeplechaser Avinash Sable, triple jumpers Eldhose Paul and Abdulla Aboobacker, walkers Priyanka Goswami and Sandeep Kumar, javelin thrower Annu Rani, long jumper Murali Sreeshankar and high jumper Tejaswin Shankar flying India’s flag high.
Avinash Sable made history as he ended the Kenyan dominance in 3000m steeplechase, finishing second with a national record, as he missed out on the gold medal by 500th of a second.
Eldhose Paul hopped, skipped and jumped into the history books as India’s first gold medallist in the triple jump, finishing ahead of compatriot Abdulla Aboobacker.
Indian weightlifters too shone in Birmingham as Mirabai Chanu, Jeremy Lalrinnunga and Achinta Shauli clinched gold in as Sanket Sargar, Bindyarani Devi and Vikas Thakur won silver. Gururaja Poojary, Harjinder Kaur, Lovepreet Singh and Gurdeep Singh claimed bronze as India ended yet another successful campaign.
In wrestling, powerhouses Bajrang Punia, Ravi Kumar Dahiya, Sakshi Malik, Vinesh Phogat, Deepak Punia and Naveen Malik won India gold medals. Anshu Malik was the lone silver medal winner as Deepak Nehra, Pooja Gehlot, Pooja Sihag, Divya Kakran, Mohit Grewal got bronze.
Boxers Nitu Ghanghas, Amit Panghal and Nikhat Zareen clinched gold medals as Sagar Ahlawat got silver. Jasmine Lamboria, Mohammad Hussamuddin and Rohit Tokas won bronze for India.
Shuttlers PV Sindhu, Lakshya Sen, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty all won gold, before combining with the likes of Kidabi Srikanth and Ashwini Ponappa to help India get silver in the mixed-team event.
Veteran table tennis star Achanta Sharath Kamal, who was honoured with the Khel Ratna, emerged as India’s most successful athlete in Birmingham 2022, winning four medals, including three gold.
India gold in men’s team, mixed doubles, men’s singles, silver in men’s doubles and bronze in men’s singles (Sathiyan Gnanasekaran).
Saurav Ghosal got silver in the men’s singles and teamed up with Dipika Pallikal to win the bronze in the mixed doubles event in squash.
The quartet of Rupa Rani Tirkey, Nayanmoni Saikia, Lovely Choubey and Pinki Singh clinched a historic gold in the women’s fours lawn bowl. The Indian men’s fours lawn bowls team – Sunil Bahadur, Navneet Singh, Chandan Singh and Dinesh Kumar, also clinched silver.
In Judo, Shushila Likmabam and Tulika Maan got silver as Vijay Kumar Yadav won bronze.
Sudhir won gold in the men’s heavyweight in the para powerlifting event as Bhavina Patel too got gold and Sonalben Patel won bronze in para Table Tennis.
In hockey, both the Indian men’s and women’s teams picked up their third CWG medals. While the men’s team won silver, the women bagged a podium finish after 16 long years.
As for cricket, the first time the sport was being played at any CWG, the women’s team got silver after losing agonisingly in the final.
India finished fourth overall, with the most medals in badminton, table tennis, wrestling and weightlifting and second best in boxing.
With the 2024 Olympics just around the corner, India is sure to be considered a powerhouse in the sporting world.
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