INDIA Finishes 3rd In 2018 CWG
THE 200 plus Indian contingent for the multi-national 2018 Commonwealth Games has made the nation proud by bagging as many as 66 medals finishing third behind Australia and England. The 21st CWG held at Australia’s Gold Coast is stated to be India’s third most successful CWG of all time. India’s shooters were the most successful lifting a total of 16 medals including seven gold, four silver and five bronze besides dominating table tennis and badminton. India won eight medals in TT. India has won a total of 26 gold medallions, 20 silvers and 20 bronze medals compared to 198 won by the host Australia and 136 lifted by England putting up their third-best show after the Delhi CWG in 2010 and Manchester CWG held in 2002. Twenty-two -year-old Manika Batra from Delhi was among the surprise sensations finishing on the podium in each of the events she contested in the Gold Coast CWG.She finished the Games with a total of four medals even as India’s 10-member table tennis team bagged 8 (3 gold, 2 silver and 3 bronze) medals, finishing with their best-ever medal haul in CWG’s history. The first medal of the Games was won by weightlifter P Gururaja, who won silver in the men’s 56kg event on day one, while the final medal came on Sunday as the men’s doubles badminton pair of Satwik Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty lost to England’s Marcus Ellis and Chris Landridge in the gold medal match to claim silver.
India’s ace shooters were the most successful winning a combined 16 medals which include seven gold, four silver and five bronze followed by the wrestlers who clinched 12 medals- five gold, three silver, four bronze – and weightlifters and boxers with nine. Five gold medals, two silver and two bronze came from weightlifting and three each came from boxing,
Table Tennis and badminton players. In all, India won eight medals in TT which is the best for any CWG. Three gold medals were won by Manika Batra who has become the first Indian woman to win an individual gold and the women’s and men’s teams comprising Manika and Mouma Das have brought home silver in the women’s doubles and three bronze medals were claimed by Achantha Sharath Kamal won bronze in the men’s singles, Manika and Sharath in the mixed doubles and Harmeet Desai and Sanil Shetty in the men’s doubles.
Wrestlers have also performed well as Sumit Malik has won the men’s 125 kilogram freestyle title while Vinesh Phogat has bagged women’s 50 kg gold on the last day of wrestling events. India got another medal when Somveer bagged bronze by defeating in Alexander Moore of Canada 7-3 in the play-off in the men’s 86kg division. Double-Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar (74kg) and event debutant Rahul Aware (57kg) provided the golden touch as India snared an impressive four medals on the opening day of the 21st Commonwealth Games’ wrestling competitions. Olympic bronze-medallist Sakshi Malik (62kg) also had to be content with a third place finish in the Commonwealth Games. Wrestler Bajrang Punia won the gold medal men’s freestyle 65kg category at Commonwealth Games. Mausam Khatri (97kg) and Pooja Dhanda (57kg) picked up silver medals while Divya Kakran (68kg) won bronze on her CWG debut. Defending champion Babita Phogat (53kg) settled for a silver while debutant Kiran was happy with bronze medal.
