India’s CWG Wrap: 26 Gold Medals But These Young Champs Stood Out
CWG 2018: Manika Batra, Neeraj Chopra and Manu Bhaker were some of the young Indians who stood out for India.
26 gold medals, 20 silver and 20 bronze and India finished at the third spot in the medal tally at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, a big jump from the disappointing 5th in Glasgow 4 years back where just 15 golds came India’s way.
To 26 from 15. Quite a jump, huh?
So who are the big winners from India’s campaign in Gold Coast? There is Mary Kom, Saina Nehwal, Sushil Kumar, Heena Sidhu – all who were expected to win. But there are also some first-timers – 15-year-olds, 20-year olds who were competing at this level for the first time and delivered.
Like 22-year-old Manika Batra. A table tennis player who had gone to Glasgow four years back and finished in the quarters in women’s singles. Four years later, she entered four events in Gold Coast and bagged a medal in each of them.
She won a gold in the women’s team event where India beat four-time defending champions Singapore with Manika winning both her singles matches, including one against the current world number 4.
At times playing as many as 5 matches a day, Manika managed to finish the games with another gold in the women’s singles event, again beating higher ranked Singapore players and also a silver in women’s doubles and a bronze in mixed doubles.
Neeraj Chopra became the first Indian to win a CWG gold in Javelin after the threw a distance of 86.47. In fact, even his worst throw was almost an entire metre better than the athlete who won the silver. Remember, Neeraj already holds the junior world record in the event after breaking it in 2016. So well, who’s waiting for Tokyo?
The games also saw India find its youngest-ever gold medallist— twice! First it was Manu Bhaker, who at 16, won the gold in the 10 meter air pistol event. From the qualifying event to each shot in the final, Manu stayed in the lead and bagged the gold with a CWG record score.
But just a few days later, India got a NEW youngest CWG gold medallist when 15-year-old Anish Bhanwala topped the field in the 25m rapid fire pistol final. ALSO with a new Games record score. At 15.
Can’t miss 17-year-old Mehuli Ghosh then, who also broke the CWG record in the 10 meter air rifle final but had to settle for silver after losing the shoot-off for the gold to Singapore's Martina Lindsay.
Wrestler Vinesh also grabbed the spotlight in Gold Coast with a dominating performance in the final to win the gold in the 50 kg category. The win awarded by technical superiority also helping us forget the heartbreaking pictures of an injured Vinesh being ruled out of the Rio Olympics.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)