INDIA's PERFORMANCE IN COMMONWEALTH 2022

The Indian contingent ended up with the impressive tally of 61 medals (22 golds, 16 silvers and 23 bronzes) and secured 4th rank in the Commonwealth 2022 held in Birmingham. The country won 4 gold medals on the final day of action as there was a hat-trick of victories in Badminton with P.V. Sindhu, Lakshya Sen and Satwik Rankireddy /Chirag Shetty winning the women's singles, men's singles and men's doubles title. Sharath Kamal added the cherry on the cake by clinching the gold medal in the men's table tennis single's event.

Women's T-20 Cricket, Beach Volleyball and Para Table Tennis have been included in this Games.

COMPARISON WITH PREVIOUS PERFORMANCE:

Talking about the previous performance India lost its face value by scoring 5 less medals but this event was more momentous as Indian athletes achieved several benchmarks in different sports. In 2018, India got 66 medals(26 golds, 20 silvers and bronze each).

                                                The main reason is that India's most successful event in CW history i.e. Shooting was excluded this year. IN 2018 itself, India won 18 medals in this sports. One can only imagine how high India could have finished in the medal tally if shooting was part of the roaster in Birmingham.

In 2010, India performed its best in CW by clinching 101 medals(38 golds, 27 silvers and 36 bronzes) , securing 2nd rank in the medal tally. India had an advantage of hosting the CW Games in 2010 with inclusion of sports like archery, wrestling and tennis.

NEW BENCHMARKS FOR INDIA:

Avinash Sable (Silver in 3000-m steeplechase)

He became the first person in Indian history to win a medal in this event. A minimal margin of 5 microseconds separated him from Gold medal winner. He came into the race after an unexpected after an 11th place finish in the recently concluded World Athletics Championship in Oregon, US. 

Lawn Bowl Women's Four Golds

The quartet of  Lovely Choubey, Pinki, Nayanmoni Saikia and Ruparani  Tirkey stunned the world by winning gold after defeating top teams like New Zealand and Australia. They should be credited by introducing the discipline to India.

Gold and Silver in Men's Triple Jump:

In the track and field events two Indians introduced themselves to the world, Eldose Paul surprised everyone by hitting 17.03 m and winning gold medal while on the other hand Abdulla Aboobacker jumped 17.02 m and won silver medal. Both created history by ending up standing in the podium on top positions and made it more memorable.

Four Medals at age of 40

Achanta Sharath performed extraordinarily by clinching gold at the final day events. He made a comeback after 16 years. Doing this at this age made it even more proud for India.

Tejaswin Shankar Bronze

After some controversies Tejaswin Shankar reached  Birmingham and won the bronze medal in men's high jump event by jumping 2.22 m to achieve the feat despite all odds.

BEST PERFORMANCES W.R.T. SPORTS:

Wrestling:

India has won 12 medals in this event, the same they won in 2018 but this time with an additional gold medal.

Weightlifting:

After wrestling India performed their best in weightlifting haul by getting 10 medals, they got one extra medal from last time with 3 gold medals. 

Table Tennis

This time India clinched 7 medals which is one less medal from 2018 but witnessed extraordinary performance of Achanta Sharath. 

Boxing

It was another sports where India fell off from 2018 by getting 7 medals with 3 gold medals. In 2018, India got a total of 9 medals with 3 golds.

Badminton 

India matched the medal tally of 2018 in this game. They also achieved three podium finishes this time.

Athletics

Despite the big Neeraj Chopra shape hole, India enhanced its performance by winning 8 medals which is significantly more than 3 which they won in 2018.

Squash

India matched its performance in 2018 but this time won two bronze medals as compared to previous two silver medals.

Lawn Bowls

For the first time in history India got two medals with one gold in women's four. This game was included since inception and this was the first time when India got medals in this game.

Judo

While Judo wasn't included in 2018 games, this time India won three medals with 2 silvers and 1 bronze in Birmingham.

Cricket

The Women's T-20 cricket was the first time included in CWG this year and India won the historic silver medal under captaincy of Harmanpreet Kaur.

Hockey

In 2018, both men's and women's hockey team missed medals and shocked the world. But this time Indian women's hockey team won bronze while men's hockey team won silver medal in the games this year.

Para-Powerlifting:

India got one medal same as in 2018 this year. However, this time around there was a gold for nation to celebrate.

CONCLUSION:

This year India's performance in Commonwealth Games Birmingham was momentous. Indian athletes and players have performed their best and made several scriptions in the record books. As compared to the medal tally of previous Games the no. of medals are less but the performance of Indian players had made them to win medals in new games and also set up several benchmarks in Athletics, Wrestling, Men's triple jump, Lawn Bowl and many more games.

                    Due to lack of infrastructure in Birmingham, Shooting and Archery was not the part of this games. If these events were included then India will definitely end up with 2nd rank in the Medal Tally. But there are several lessons to learn that if proper investment in sports infrastructure and acquisition of skilled coaches is done at basic level, then the day is not far when we will witness several world records by Indian Players.