India breaks Manchester tally to make Delhi feat their best-ever-12/10/2010

12/10/2010

India breaks Manchester tally to make Delhi feat their best-ever

When shooters Hina Sidhu and Anu Raaj Singh won their 10m air pistol pairs event, India surpassed their best ever performance at a CWG event, getting past the Manchester tally of 30 golds in 2002. Propelled by a stunning effort from shooters, wrestlers, weightlifters and athletes, India now look forward to finishing 2nd in the event if they can maintain the momentum in the last 3 days.



It is a historic moment for India and it was no surprise that it came from the shooters. After all the negativity that surrounded the CWG 2010 days before the start of competitive action, Indian athletes today gave reasons to forget all of them with an effort that has made the world stand up and take notice. Indian athletes have surged past 30 gold medals and in the process bettered the Manchester feat of 2002 CWG. With 32 golds already, the Indian contingent is on course to finish as the second best Commonwealth nation in these games.

In the last 3 CWG editions, India has clearly announced its arrival on the big stage as far as CWG is concerned. Back in 1998, at the CWG event in Kuala Lumpur India had managed to win 7 gold medals and in the very next edition, there was a sharp spike in Manchester where shooters kept hitting the bull's eye at regular intervals and were supported by weightlifters.



India's CWG performance over the years

Edition Gold Silver Bronze Total Medals Final position
1934 0 0 1 1 12th
1938 0 0 0 0 -
1954 0 0 0 0 -
1958 2 1 0 3 8th
1966 3 4 3 10 8th
1970 5 3 4 12 6th
1974 4 8 3 15 6th
1978 5 5 5 15 6th
1982 5 8 3 16 6th
1990 13 8 11 32 5th
1994 6 11 7 24 6th
1998 7 10 8 25 7th
2002 30 22 17 69 4th
2006 22 17 10 49 4th
2010* 31 23 28 82 2nd


* As of 12th October, 2010 at 1030 IST



India's first-ever Commonwealth medal winner was Rashid Anwar in the welterweight category in wrestling way back in 1934. India skipped 4 of the 19 CWG editions. In the first 15 editions (prior to the Delhi edition) in which India took part, the contingent won a total of 43 gold medals where as in the last 3 editions before this one, nation landed 59 gold medals. It clearly shows the surge India have made in the last 3 editions in the premier event for commonwealth nations and is quite remarkable.

Going by the current rate, India is projected to end the Delhi edition closer to the 40 Gold medal mark. Stars who have excelled over the years at the CWG for India include Samresh Jung, Gagan Narang, Jaspal Rana and a host of weightlifters. Few would even forget the 'chak de' act of Indian women's hockey team when they won the gold at the Manchester Games in 2002.





Golden moments for India in 2002 at the Manchester CWG


Player Event
Mohamed Ali Qamar 48-kg light flyweight boxing
Women's hockey team Hockey
Sameer Ambedkar & Abhinav Bindra 10m air rifle pairs
Anjali Bhagwat 10m air rifle
Anjali Bhagwat and Suma Shirur 10m air rifle pairs
Bhanwar lal and Mukesh Kumar 25m rapid fire pistol pairs
Jaspal Rana 25m pistol
Jaspal Rana and Samresh Jung 25m pistol pairs
Samresh Jung and Vivek Singh 50m rifle 3 pairs
Charan Singh 50m rifle 3 position
Anjali Bhagwat 50m rifle 3 position
Anjali Bhagwat and Raj Kumari 50m rifle 3 position pairs
Jaspal Rana Centre fire pistol
Jaspal Rana and Mahaveer Singh Centre fire pistol pairs
Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore Double trap
Morad Ali and Rathore Double trap pairs
Kunjarani Devi 48kg clean and jerk
Kunjarani Devi 48kg combined
Kunjarani Devi 48kg snatch
Sanamachu Chanu 53kg clean and jerk
Sanamachu Chanu 53kg combined
Sanamachu Chanu 53kg snatch
Pratima Kumari 63kg clean and jerk
Pratima Kumari 63kg combined
Shailaja Pujari 75kg clean and jerk
Shailaja Pujari 75kg combined
Shailaja Pujari 75kg snatch
Palwinder Singh 120kg freestyle wrestling
Krishnan Kumar 55kg freestyle wrestling
Ramesh Kumar 66kg freestyle wrestling


Golden moments for India in 2002 at the Melbourne CWG

Player Event
Samresh Jung Men's 50m Pistol
Samresh Jung and Jaspal Rana Men's 25m Centre Fire Pistol pairs
Samresh Jung and Vivek Singh Men's 10m Air Pistol pairs
Samresh Jung and Ronak Pandit Men's 25m Standard Pistol pairs
Samresh Jung Men's 10m Air Pistol
Gagan Narang Men's 10m Air Rifle
Gagan Narang Men's 50m Rifle 3 Positions
Gagan Narang and Abhinav Bindra Men's 10m Air Rifle pairs
Gagan Narang and Abhinav Bindra Men's 50m Rifle 3 Positions pairs
Tejaswini Sawant Women's 10m Air Rifle
Tejaswini Sawant and Avneet Sidhu Women's 10m Air Rifle pairs
Saroj Juthu and Sushma Rana Women's 25m Pistol pairs
Vijay Kumar and Pemba Tamang Men's 25m Rapid Fire Pistol pairs
Anuja Jung Women's 50m Rifle 3 Positions
Vijay Kumar Men's 25m Rapid Fire Pistol
Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore Men's Double Trap
Yumnam Chanu Women's 58 kg
Kunjarani Devi Women's 48 kg
Geeta Rani Women's +75 kg
Achanta Sharat Kamal Men's Singles
Achanta Sharat Kamal Table tennis
Akhil Kumar Bantamweight 54 kg


Golden moments for India in 2010 at the Delhi CWG

Player Event
Gagan Narang and Abhinav Bindra Men's 10m Air Rifle pairs
Anisa Sayeed and Rahi Sarnobat Women's 25m pistol pairs
Ravinder Singh Men's Greco-Roman 60kg
Anil Kumar Men's Greco-Roman 96kg
Sanjay Kumar Men's Greco-roman 74kg
Renu Chanu Women's 58kg weightlifting
Ravi Kumar Men's 69kg weightlifting
Anisa Sayeed Women's 25m pistol
Omkar Singh Men's 50kg pistol
Rajender Kumar Men's Greco-Roman 55kg
Gagan Narang Men's 10m air rifle
Vijay Kumar and Gurpreet Singh Men's 25m rapid fire pistol pairs
Omkar Singh and Gurpreet Singh Men's 10m air pistol
Geeta Women's freestyle 55kg
Alka Tomar Women's freestyle 59kg
Anita Women's freestyle 67kg
Indian women's recurve team Archery
Omkar Singh Men's 10m air pistol
Gagan Narang and Imraan Khan Men's 50m air rifle 3 positions
Vijay Kumar Men's 25m rapid fire pistol
Vijay Kumar and Harpreet Singh Men's 25m centre fire pistol pairs
Gagan Narang Men's 50m 3 positions
Narsingh Yadav Men's 74kg freestyle wrestling
Yogeshwar Dutt Men's 60kg freestyle wrestling
Deepika Kumari Archery women's recurve
Harpreet Singh Men's 25m centre fire pistol
Rahul Banerjee Archery men's recurve
Sushil Kumar Men's 66kg freestyle
Somdev Devvarman Men's singles tennis
Krishna Poonia Women's discuss throw
Hina Sidhu and Anu Raaj Singh 10m pistol pairs

Source: India Syndicate