2021 will go down in the annals of Indian
sports as a historic year. Indian sportspersons enjoyed tremendous success
across multiple sports during the COVID-19 pandemic hit calendar year. Nothing could
stop them from joining the leagues of the best. In some cases, Indian athletes
even beat the world beaters and emerged champions and this trend continued even
beyond the sphere of cricket.

So, as the year comes to the end, Opoyi
picks the top 10 moments of Indian sports in 2021.

Breaching
Australia’s Gabba fortress

Until January 2021, no cricketing nation
had beaten Australia in a Test match at Brisbane’s Gabba stadium for the last
33 years. However, the Indian cricket team breached into Australia’s
much-vaunted Gabba as they chased down a massive fourth innings target on Day 5
to not only clinch the Gabba but also to win the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2-1 for
the second successive time.

Also Read: Ravichandran Ashwin among four nominees for ICC Test Cricketer of the year award

Glorious
performance at Para-Olympics

5 gold medals, 8 silver, and 6 bronze. This
was the performance of Indian Paralympians at the Tokyo Paralympics. Indian
athletes won a total of 19 medals to return home with their best-ever haul from
the mega event.

Also Read: Paralympian Pramod Bhagat on how Sachin Tendulkar inspired him

Mithali
Raj’s 10k international runs

Veteran Indian women’s cricket team captain
Mithali Raj became only the first Indian and only the second batter after
England’s Charlotte Edwards to enter the exclusive club of 10,000-run scorers
in international cricket. A couple of months later, she surpassed Edwards and
became the top run-scorer among the international women’s cricketers.

Also Read: Mithali Raj birthday: Records that only the women’s cricket great holds

First
Indian fencer in the Olympics

India’ CA Bhavani became the first fencer
from the country to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. Devi, who was ranked 45 in
the world at the time, booked a berth in the individual sabre category. She
also became the first Indian fencer to advance to the second round in the
Olympics after beating Nadia Ben Aziz of Tunisia.

Also Read: You learn from your failures: India’s first Olympic fencer Bhavani Devi

Winning
at Lord’s

During the India-England Test series, the
Virat Kohli-led Indian team beat England by 151 runs to win their third-ever
victory at the ‘Home of Cricket’. India levelled the 5-match series at 1-1
after that second Test.

Also Read: Determination, despair, drama: Everything that defined India’s epic Lord’s victory

Mirabai
Chanu’s Olympic moment

After a heartbreaking exit from the Rio
2016 Olympics, weightlifter Mirabai Chanu created history at Tokyo 2020. The
27-year-old from Manipur won a silver medal in the women’s 49kg category for
lifting a total of 202kg. She missed the gold by a whisker. China’s Hou Zhihui
won gold for lifting 8kg more than Chanu.

Also Read: ‘Dream come true’: Olympic medallist Mirabai Chanu elated after Salman, Sachin meetings

India’s
1st gold in athletics at Olympic

Athletics is the Olympics’ most prestigious
event. Independent India never saw anybody winning a medal in athletics in the
Olympics. But in the Tokyo Olympics, Neeraj Chopra surprised the world when he
threw 87.58m in the men’s javelin throw final and won the gold at Tokyo’s
National Stadium.

Also Read: Neeraj Chopra turns 24: A look at his steller rise and records

Double
Olympic medallist

Badminton player PV Sindhu became the first
individual Indian athlete to win two Olympic medals that too in two successive
Olympics. After winning silver in Rio in 2016, she won a bronze in 2021 at the
Tokyo Olympics. She lost the semifinal to Tai Tzu Ying.

Also Read: PV Sindhu wins bronze: PM Modi leads India in wishing the champion

First silver medallist Kidambi Srikanth

PV Sindhu is India’s most decorated
badminton player now. She won five BWF World Championships medals – two bronze,
two silver and a gold in 2019 – to date. But in the men’s category, India have
only two bronze till 2021 and no gold or silver. In December 2021, Kidambi
Srikanth improved that record becoming first Indian men’s shuttler to win a
silver medal at the BWF World Championships 2021. Lakshya Sen won bronze, taking the Indian men’s medal tally to four at the BWF World Championships.

Also Read: Kidambi Srikanth secures historic silver at BWF World Championships

Remarkable
performance at Tokyo 2020

India won a record 7 medals at the
postponed Tokyo Olympics in July-August this year, surpassing the previous
tally of London 2012, when India won six medals.

Mirabai Chanu opened India’s tally winning
silver in the women’s 49kg event, bringing home the country’s first silver in
weightlifting at the Olympics. Then, PV Sindhu clinched bronze in the women’s
singles badminton event, becoming the first Indian woman to bag two Olympic
medals. Boxer Lovlina Borgohain clinched bronze in the women’s welterweight category.
India then won two wrestling medals; with Ravi Kumar Dahiya bagging silver in
the men’s 57kg and Bajrang Punia winning bronze in the men’s wrestling
freestyle 65kg division.

Also Read: With 7 medals, India put on their best-ever show at the Olympics

In hockey, the Indian men’s hockey team ended a
41-year medal drought by clinching team bronze while the women’s team finished
fourth. And finally, javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra bagged gold to win India’s
first-ever gold medal in athletics and become only the second Indian, after
Abhinav Bindra in 2008, to win an individual gold at the Olympics.