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Commonwealth Games 2018:Rise or fall of Indian Sports?

India finished third in the recently concluded Commonwealth Games. There were a lot of surprise performers and many new sports where we got medals.This blog is about the overall analysis of India's performance. I would also answer the claim as to whether sports in India is actually on a rise.


With 66 medals India finished third at the overall points table. There has been a slight improvement in India's performance than the last commonwealth games. In Glasgow, India won 64 medals.This is the third highest medals ever won by India. Delhi Commonwealth Games (101 medals) and Manchester Commonwealth Games (69 medals) being first and second respectively. The sport which has surprised everyone is weightlifting. It is not that we have not done well in weightlifting in the past. Karnam Maheshwari previously has brought laurels for India, clinching a bronze at the Olympics.But the magnitude of the number of medals was huge and has never happened before. Weightlifting team won a total of 9 medals which includes 5 gold,2 silver and 2 bronze medals.The weightlifting federation of India must be congratulated for their outstanding efforts. It is surely a sport we can look for medals in future. The other big performer was badminton. The badminton team won a total of 6 medals which includes 2 gold,3 silver and 1 bronze.For the very first time, India won a gold medal in the team event where they managed to get past the mighty Malaysians.The badminton team surely performed according to the expectations.Shooting, Wrestling and boxing were again the big medal getters for India with 16 (7 gold,4 silver and 5 bronze), 12 medals(5 gold,3 silver and 4 bronze) and 9 medals(3 gold,3 silver and 3 bronze) respectively.Table tennis(8 medals) was also a surprise performer.Athletics(3 medals) and squash(2 medals) also showed some brave performances in the Games.
The sports which disappointed me were Hockey and gymnastics.Both the games have been getting medals in the past Commonwealth Games but this time there were no signs of glory for these sports.This is the first time in eight years that hockey has not managed to win a medal at the Commonwealth Games.In my previous blogs I mentioned the problems existing in hockey and because of these, we had to come back empty-handed.Gymnastics was a sport which showed some glimpses of excellence at the Olympics and previous editions of Commonwealth Games but unfortunately not this time.Though the withdrawal of Deepa Karmakar(due to knee injury) from the 2018 Commonwealth Games had already given a big blow to the hopes a medal in gymnastics.
So finally I would congratulate the sports authorities for pulling out a decent performance at the Commonwealth Games.But surely performance in these Games nowhere suggest that sports in India is on a rise.With 101 medals in 2010 Commonwealth Games,we managed to get only 66% of the medals as compared to those games.Only a mere 2 medal improvement from the previous games.This certainly doesn't indicate any rise in the standard of Indian sports.We are still lagging far behind in the sports which carry the maximum number of medals i.e swimming and athletics.One thing is for sure competition at the Asian Games will be much tougher as some of the best sporting countries like China will also join.Hence if we really want to make a mark at the world level we really need to improve the standard of sports in our country.Firstly we need to admit that Indian Sports is not on a rise.To end on a positive note I would also like to mention the amazing performance of the athletes who represent railways.Out of the 22 medals,10 medals have been won by athletes from RSPB(Railway Sports Promotion Board).Surely the railway sports board is doing a good job in managing the athletes and deserves appreciation.

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