TeaHe lost his pioneer – javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra – to an inauspicious start to India’s Commonwealth Birmingham campaign. The Olympic gold medalist suffered a groin injury a month ago during a silver medal performance at the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Oregon.
However, with a little over a week into the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, Chopra’s absence hasn’t really been felt among the Indian contingent or fans the way it would be at the Olympics. Rather, other team members have stepped up in a big way – as it stands, the Indians have won 9 gold medals, 8 silver and 9 bronze medals in nine sports.
Many of India’s podium successes have fallen short of recent Commonwealth editions and yet, the ease with which some athletes have managed to compete through competition perhaps reflects the declining prestige of the Commonwealth Games in comparison to other international tournaments.
However, this is still the first major track and field tournament, with a mainstream Indian following, to take place in the post-COVID era without any major restrictions or bio bubbles, especially in light of the postponement of the 2022 Asian Games.
With the Commonwealth Games ending on Monday, the bigger story for India lies in the diverse themes of medal winners as compared to the previous editions, where shooting and wrestling dominated the scene, though it has not been smooth administrative sailing. And that is why the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games is ThePrint’s Newsmaker of the Week.
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podium pool extension
Of India’s 26 medals so far, 10 have come in weightlifting, a positive progress from the nine medals won at Gold Coast 2018, with Tokyo Olympic silver medalist Mirabai Chanu taking over tournament debutants Jeremy Lalrinnunga and Achinta Shuli. Won gold medal with
Twenty-eight of India’s 66 medals at the Gold Coast in Australia came in the usual suspects of shooting and wrestling. Shooting was removed from the Birmingham calendar and wrestling took place in the days following the Games, a distinction for Indians in other disciplines.
The results so far have shown a mix of veteran and youth – 35-year-old squash player Saurav Ghosal won his silver medal at Gold Coast with bronze in Birmingham, 40-year-old Sharath Kamal Achanta was part of the four-man squad. The team that won the gold medal in table tennis and Murali Sreeshankar, 23, won the silver medal in the long jump.
The most notable though has been India’s historic lawn bowling gold with the winning team in the women’s fours category. characteristic of Delhi High School Physical Education Teacher, Jharkhand District Sports Officer, Jharkhand Police Officer and an employee of the Assam Forest Department.
There is still more to come with most track and field events taking place this weekend, as well as India’s women’s cricket semi-final against England and medal brackets in hockey, table tennis and boxing.
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union under the cloud
However, no major tournament with Indian participation goes ahead without an off-field incident or controversy and the same applies to Birmingham 2022 in the case of boxer Lovlina Borgohain and high jump athlete Tejaswin Shankar.
In the week before the Games, Borgohain had complained about “mental harassment” on Twitter, which appeared to be an administrative blockade from the Boxing Federation of India as well as the Indian Olympic Association and the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. Is. About her coach’s entry into the Birmingham Games Village.
Meanwhile, Shankar had to take his fight with the Athletics Federation of India to the Delhi High Court. Approved As a replacement player for India’s athletics contingent in Birmingham. Shankar Hadi Missed Dropped out of the final selection trial in Chennai and decided to participate in the American Collegiate Tournament as a student in Kansas, and was denied qualification by the AFI before deciding to approach the court.
Borgohain’s dream of Birmingham ended in a quarterfinal loss to Rosie Ackles of Wales, but Shankar defied the federation with a bronze medal to follow up on his successes at the national American college level.
A week ago Tejaswin Shankar was practicing in front of 3 dogs at JLN Stadium after he was not named in the CWG squad despite meeting the AFI QF standard. Joining the last minute after taking the Fed to court, in front of 30,000 today, she won the bronze medal in the high jump in Birmingham. pic.twitter.com/1YDiEsvjE3
— Jonathan Selvaraj (@jon_selvaraj) 3 August 2022
That Shankara was able to achieve this, instead, because of the work of the Sangha, reflects the need for powers to rethink and overcome some of the ancient systems behind his selection processes.
Thoughts are personal.