It is never too late to rise and shine. As if to salvage India’s image that was lost when the country hosted the
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The 215-strong Indian contingent participating in the Commonwealth Games 2014 has staged some excellent performances this year. Incidentally, controversies marred the last edition of the Games hosted by India four years ago and clearly took some shine off the excellent showing of Indian sports stars at that time.
But this time around, hopes were as strong as the performances put up by Indians. Among the 6,500 sports persons representing 71 nations across 17 sports, India is sitting snug at the sixth spot. Although this is a ‘fall’ of sorts from the earlier ranking, India may very well finish with third or fourth highest medal tally.
Some of the finest stories of non-celebrities evolving into heroes, based on their dedication, focus, hard work and commitment (laced with the smallest share of luck), are being written here. For instance, there is weightlifter Satish Kumar Sivalingam whom we hardly know. He hails from a poor family in Tamil Nadu, but has now secured his place in the hearts of millions by making his country proud. Sivalingam, a humble Railways employee, won the gold in men’s weightlifting 77kg category.
However, India’s ace sharpshooters mostly called the shots in the medal hunt. Apart from Bindra winning the gold in men’s 10m air rifle and Narang settling for the silver medal in 50m rifle prone event, Jitu Rai bagged the gold medal in men’s 50m while Gurpal Singh followed him with the silver.
Shooters and wrestlers came up with a stunning show at the Games, winning majority of the gold medals in India’s medal haul. Having won 41 medals in all, India has so far got 10 gold medals, 19 silvers and 12 bronzes.
Wrestler Sushil Kumar, who carried the weight of India’s aspirations, will also return home to a hero’s welcome. He led the charge of Indian wrestlers who won three of the five gold medals up for grabs at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre, the venue for wrestling competitions.
Interestingly, the ongoing Commonwealth Games is his first major international event after his favourite 66kg category was removed and he had to pile up 9kg to qualify for the new weight category. In the Glasgow Games, four sports categories have been removed, reducing the mega event to only 17 categories.
Prior to Sushil Kumar, Amit Kumar and Vinesh Phogat made India proud with excellent performance in their respective categories. Amit won gold in men’s freestyle 57kg by beating Nigerian Ebikweminomo Welson, teenager Vinesh held the country’s flag high by clinching an 11-8 victory against England’s Yana Rattigan in the women’s freestyle 48kg wrestling.
The medal haul continued with marksmen Sanjeev Rajput and Narang winning medals (silver and bronze, respectively, in men’s 50m rifle 3 position) for the country. Lajja Goswami also won the bronze in women’s 50m rifle 3 position category.
