The Commonwealth Games 2022 held in Birmingham officially ended last night, and the Indian athletes have delivered plenty through these Games, giving the nation enough reasons to be proud and happy.  

The Indian contingent finished the Games with a total of 61 medals, of which 22 were gold- thus putting India at a respectable 4th position behind Australia, hosts England, and Canada. India also managed to successfully overtake New Zealand on the final day of the games as it bagged 4 gold medals- 3 in badminton and 1 in table tennis. 

Let’s look at some of the highlights, some of the stars that stood out in this multi-disciplinary tournament.

Also read: Who is Sharath Kamal?

Sharath Kamal 

Forty-year-old Kamal enjoyed another highly successful Commonwealth Games bagging 3 gold medals and a silver this fortnight- the highest by an Indian in these Games. In fact, if Sharath was a country, he’d have been ranked 16th out of the total 72 nations. Interestingly, the table tennis wonder played on every day of the games barring the 3rd of August- pretty much non-stop for 11 days, which also included 3 matches in just more than 4 hours on 6th August that got him 2 medals. 

Our Wrestlers

The Indian wrestling team enjoyed a bountiful tournament completing a perfect-12, where all 12 members of the team won a medal each, with 6 of them winning gold. The popularity of this sport has only grown in the country after the team achieved a similar feat in the previous edition of the Games in 2018, but this time they went one better- converting one more gold this time around. Nineteen-year-old Naveen Malik was definitely the find of the tournament after he had been a shock inclusion in the Commonwealth team by winning the selection trials. He made it count with style, contributing to the burgeoning gold medal count to India’s name from this sport. 

Also read: Commonwealth Games 2022: 10 members from Sri Lankan contingent go missing

Our Weightlifters

The fact that India topped the medals tally in weightlifting with 10 medals, including 3 golds, is one part of the story. What the stats won’t show is the way the 15-member weightlifting team won hearts with not just their performances but also their personas. Jeremy Lalrinnunga shot to fame winning his first gold medal at the tender age of 19, and did it all with a strong dose of singing and dancing on the side, while Mirabai Chanu won hearts when she was seen engaging with a 6-year old fan by doing a gymnastic split with him. So much so that Chris Hemsworth, aka Thor, even deemed her ‘worthy’ of Thor’s hammer.

Our Athletics Team

Athletics has long been an Achilles heel of Indian sports. This year though, our athletes rose to the occasion and bagged an impressive 8 medals at the Games. This was up from just 3 medals at the Gold Coast Games 4 years back. Notably, Avinash Sable set another national record in the 3000m steeplechase to earn a memorable silver, while the men’s triple jump event saw 2 Indians take the top two steps of the podium- Eldhose Paul and Abdulla Aboobacker winning gold and silver respectively.  Elsewhere, Murali Sreeshankar became the first Indian to win a silver medal in the men’s long jump. Annu Rani also made history, becoming the first Indian female javelin thrower to win a medal- a bronze, at the Commonwealth Games.

Also read: Ozzy Osbourne, Peaky Blinders make appearances at CWG closing ceremony

Our Lawn Bowls Team

The Indian lawn bowls team created history at the 2022 Games by winning India’s first ever medals in this little recognised sport. The Men’s Fours team reached the final and earned a silver medal after falling short to Northern Ireland, while the Women’s Fours team went all the way beating South Africa 17-10 to etch their place in history with a historic first-ever gold.