Gold Rush At Gold Coast

India Had One Of Their Best-ever Finishes At The Commonwealth Games, With Youngsters Adding To The Glitter And The Promise Of A Much-improved Finish In The Upcoming Asian Games In Jakarta.

- Tanmoy Mookherjee

AN ALL-INDIAN women’s singles badminton final. Team gold in the same sport. One-two finishes in the shooting range. Team gold in table tennis, for both women and men. These Commonwealth Games, held in sunny Gold Coast in Australia, brought 66 medals of which 26 were gold, more than their silver and bronze medal hauls. Unprecedented in comparison to previous tallies in the Games, save for the one in New Delhi, in 2010. The third position bettered the 2014 performance in Glasgow by just two medals (India had finished in fifth place then), but were far superior in terms of the aggregate gold medal count.

While it has added to the promise for the Asian Games, the 2022 edition of the CWG in Birmingham will pose bigger threats, with shooting not a part of the Games roster, a sport that fetched India a total of 16 medals this time, including seven gold. By winning medals outside the traditional bastions of shooting, wrestling and weightlifting, India made a quantum leap in multi-sporting events, raising its profile, and indeed expectations, ahead of the Asian Games, set to take place in August.

Long considered India’s favourite multi-discipline event, India’s athletes thrived once again at Gold Coast. The success was eye-catching: India medalled in nine out of the 16 events it participated in, some of them by teenagers making their Games debut. Anish Bhanwala, 15, became India’s youngest-ever Commonwealth Games medallist, while 16-year-old Manu Bhaker triumphed over compatriot and former World No. 1 Heena Sidhu (above). The vast gulf in the ages of athletes meant the younger ones made a victorious start to their careers, while seasoned campaigners like Sushil Kumar, MC Mary Kom and Saina Nehwal cemented their reputation as Games greats.

Whether or not it will translate into continental success at the Asian Games, and indeed later at the 2020 Olympics, remains to be seen. But hopes are high.