India’s lesson from CWG: Diversify sports activities. The eight medals in athletics is a landmark second

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India’s lesson from CWG: Diversify sports activities. The eight medals in athletics is a landmark second

The gold sweep in badminton on the ultimate day marked the start of India’s dominance within the sport on the CWG, ending Malaysia’s decades-long stranglehold. The different massive splash – despite the fact that there have been no medals – got here within the pool, the place Srihari Nataraj’s twin backstroke last appearances level to a promising future. But probably the most important achieve of all was seen in athletics.

The one gold, 4 silver and three bronze medals is India’s greatest displaying in CWG observe and area on overseas soil. And very like Neeraj Chopra’s gold on the Tokyo Olympics, the efficiency on the intense blue tracks and plush inexperienced fields of the Alexander Stadium might be India’s largest takeaway from Birmingham.

The eight athletics medals is perhaps half of what taking pictures – India’s golden goose on the CWG – fetched 4 years in the past, however they appear no much less in value. Unlike taking pictures, athletics is among the few sports activities on the CWG with a excessive competitors stage – the entry record is affected by names of athletes who’re both world or continental champions.

That’s the explanation Avinash Sable’s silver medal within the 3,000m steeplechase, the place he gave a mighty scare to the all-conquering Kenyans – is extra important than, say, a Ravi Dahiya gold medal in wrestling, a sport the place the extent of competitors is way larger on the trials to pick out the Indian group for the CWG than the Games themselves.

The success in athletics will even function one other reminder for India to maintain diversifying into extra sports activities relatively than placing all their eggs in a single or two baskets, particularly on the CWG. The Commonwealth Games program is evolving quicker than even the Olympic one, with some radical adjustments proposed for the subsequent version in Victoria, Australia.

Its result’s that together with taking pictures, wrestling – a sport by which India gained 12 medals, together with 6 golds, in Birmingham – too finds itself on the chopping block for the 2026 Games. In such a situation, India should determine different sources for medals to match their present tally, not to mention surpass it.

Speaking to The Indian Express earlier than the Commonwealth Games, player-turned-administrator Manisha Malhotra had underlined the necessity for India to start out trying past taking pictures and wrestling for medals. “You can’t keep sticking only to shooting, wrestling, archery for medals,” she had mentioned. “You’ll never pass the medal tally you aspire to if you don’t look at new sports and infuse money into new sports.”

Heavy-medal sports activities

Malhotra had a degree. Athletics, swimming, biking, gymnastics, wrestling, and canoeing, between them, account for 171 gold medals, 50 p.c of the overall medals on provide on the Olympics. The US, China, Russia and different prime Olympic nations observe a method to channel all their power into these heavy-medal sports activities for a significant chunk of their tallies. Of the six, India can solely declare to be a severe participant globally in wrestling.

In this context, the medals in observe and area make one rub their fingers in anticipation. Eldhose Paul’s big leap of 17.03m to win the triple bounce gold might’ve seen him end sixth on the Tokyo Games. If he provides half a meter to his private greatest, he might properly be among the many medals on the World Championships or the Olympics.

The showman that he’s, Tejaswin Shankar has already generated a buzz round him by declaring that he’ll compete in decathlon at subsequent 12 months’s Asian Games relatively than the excessive bounce, an occasion by which he gained India’s first-ever medal on the CWG. That will open one other door for India’s athletes.

And it is not simply on the CWG. At the under-20 World Championships, which ran parallelly in Cali, Colombia, the coming-of-age performances of the junior athletes have given a glimpse into what the long run may maintain. The days when India’s athletes turned up at main occasions to be embarrassingly poor appear to be a factor of the previous.

Although it’ll stay because the overarching storyline, Birmingham 2022 wasn’t nearly India’s observe and area exploits.

The final 10 days have been a couple of peerless Sharath Kamal persevering with to pocket gold medals 16 years after successful his first; they have been a couple of ragtag bunch of athletes – police constables, authorities officers and lecturers – making all the nation sit up and take discover of a sport, garden bowls, that was largely dismissed as a relic of the Commonwealth; they have been additionally about some well timed reassurances, just like the one offered by the ladies’s hockey group, whose bronze medal confirmed they continue to be on the proper path since taking off on the Tokyo Olympics regardless of latest bumps.

Looking on the greater image, vis–vis the Olympics, it is these little positive aspects that really depend. And from that viewpoint, the 61 medals could also be 5 fewer than in 2018 however the 22 gold, 16 silver and 23 bronze medals in mark development, relatively than regression, from the earlier Games.

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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS

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