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Business News/ News / Business Of Life/  Glasgow Commonwealth Games | Where will India’s medals come from?
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Glasgow Commonwealth Games | Where will India’s medals come from?

With many of the events where India have done well being dropped from the Commonwealth Games, don't expect a repeat of 2010's glowing performance

Photo: Andy Buchanan/AFPPremium
Photo: Andy Buchanan/AFP

OTHERS :

Glasgow: India had its best and worst sporting moment at any games in the same breath— the 2010 Commonwealth Games (CWG) in New Delhi. While the officials and the organizing committee were mired in controversies that still linger, the athletes, notwithstanding the doping cases, provided the best moments in the form of 101 medals, including 38 gold. That gave India second place in the tally, behind Australia, but ahead of England for the first time ever.

For a country that has always been starved of medals at the Olympics and even the Asian Games, dominated by China, Japan and Korea and the former states of the erstwhile Soviet Union, the less competitive Commonwealth Games offered great succour. Before 2010, India’s best performance at a CWG was at the Manchester edition in 2002, where it won 30 gold, 22 silver and 17 bronze medals.

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Vijay Kumar. Photo: Lars Baron/Getty Images

Now that the 2014 edition has started in Glasgow, Scotland, the focus is firmly back on the sportspeople. India are fielding 224 athletes plus 90 officials, their second biggest contingent ever, the first being the 2010 Games, with 619 members, including athletes, coaches and support staff.

Expectations are high. But since 2010, there has been a change in disciplines—a reduction in some events and axing of others—that will hit India hard. For example, shooting will see a truncated programme without the Pairs events and some Pistol events, reducing the number of shooting medals on offer from 36 to 19. In 2010, India won 14 gold, 11 silver and five bronze medals from the 36 (18 individual and 18 Pairs) available in shooting. The Pairs events accounted for seven of the 14 golds, five of the 11 silvers and two of the five bronze medals. The dropping of the 25m Centre Fire Individual and 25m Standard Individual Pistol could cost India one gold, one silver and one bronze. Overall, India had medals in 14 of the 18 Pairs events. The total loss this time, therefore, would be eight gold, six silver and three bronze medals.

The winners included Abhinav Bindra (10m Air Rifle with Gagan Narang), Vijay Kumar (25m Centre Fire and 25m Rapid Fire, with Harpreet Singh), and Narang (10m Air Rifle with Bindra and 50m Rifle 3 Positions with Imran Hasan Khan). That apart, Heena Sidhu-Annu Raj Singh and Rahi Sarnobat-Anisa Sayyed won gold medals in the 10m Air Pistol and 25m Pistol Pairs, respectively. Many of the big names from the past, such as Bindra, Narang, Kumar, Manavjit Singh Sandhu and Joydeep Karmakar, are still around; and there are new stars like Jitu Rai and Om Prakash. Yet the haul could be half of what was achieved in 2010.

Amit Kumar. Photo: Rajnish Katyal/Hundustan Times
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Amit Kumar. Photo: Rajnish Katyal/Hundustan Times

Also unavailable for medals are tennis (India won one gold, one silver and two bronze medals) and archery (India won three golds, one silver and four bronze medals in 2010).

That adds up to 16 gold, nine silver and 11 bronze medals from the total of 38 gold, 27 silver and 36 bronze medals that will not be on offer; just over one-third of the total number of medals and just over 40% of the gold medals.

Other disciplines will suffer too, for other reasons. In badminton, India had two golds, but one of the winners, Saina Nehwal, has opted out, citing an injury, leaving the responsibility to young P.V. Sindhu, who may yet rise to the occasion. Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa, winners in women’s doubles, are back, but may not be the force they were four years ago. But P. Kashyap, bronze medallist in 2010, will benefit from the absence of world No.1 Lee Chong Wei from Malaysia.

While shooting may yet bring in the biggest haul, wrestling is the sport where India have been doing well at the Olympics and world championships. The contingent for Glasgow is young. The two medallists from the 2012 London Olympics, Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt, are the only ones from the 2010 CWG squad still there.

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Vikas Gowda. Photo: Paul Gilham/Getty Images

The women grapplers won three golds, two silvers and a bronze in the previous CWG edition. This time Babita Phogat, the silver medallist in 51kg four years ago, will look to win gold in the 55kg category, where her sister, Geeta, won the gold at New Delhi. Geeta, who is recovering from an injury, is not participating this time.

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Ashwini Akkunji. Photo: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images

In 2010, the Indian athletics squad won only two golds, three silvers and seven bronze medals. Now, with a 41-member squad and prospects like Vikas Gowda (men’s discus), Ashwini Akkunji (400m and 4x400m), triple jumper Arpinder Singh, who has consistently crossed the 17m mark, a good bet for a gold, and Ravinder Singh Khaira, who has been hurling the javelin over 78m, the haul could well be around four golds, with a few more of silver and bronze.

But familiar murmurs of too many officials and coaches linger. There are two husbands (those of discus throwers Poonia and Punia) and one father (of Gowda) who are going as coaches. The throwing events alone have five coaches.

As the Games kick off, the walls are not plastered with Games branding in Glasgow, but as this writer’s host said, the number of “No Entry" signs are multiplying at a frightening pace, and almost by the hour. That may well also be the sign for many of India’s past medallists, whose events have been axed from the programme.

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Published: 23 Jul 2014, 06:20 PM IST
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