The Commonwealth Games 2022 turned out to be great from India’s perspective. India finished at 4th position in the points table with 61 medals. This year, the country won 22 Gold, 16 Silver, and 23 Bronze. India had their best-ever performance at the Commonwealth Games in their own country in 2010, winning 101 medals, including 38 gold. Birmingham 2022 is the fifth-best performance in terms of total medal count, behind New Delhi (101), Manchester 2002 (69), Gold Coast 2018 (66), and Glasgow 2014 (64).
P. V. Sindhu, Lakshya Sen, the duo of Satwik Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, and the enduring Sharath Kamal all won their individual finals on the final day. This gave India four golds, one silver, and one bronze medal.
But there was one event missing from the Games: shooting. It is a discipline India has long dominated, winning 16 medals at the most recent Games (seven gold, four silver, and five bronze). Since the games’ establishment in 1966, there have only been two Commonwealth Games without shooting; the other was in 1970.
Commonwealth Games 2022, a tournament to remember
22 gold medals were earned by Indian players at the multisport competition. Although quite a few were unexpected winners, a few people were anticipated to return home with gold around their necks. In wrestling, there was complete dominance.
The women’s team won an iconic gold medal, marking India’s first-ever victory in lawn bowls. One of the proudest moments for the nation at the games was winning gold in the men’s triple jump.
Two Indians stood on the platform simultaneously on three different occasions. The men’s triple jump competition saw first-place finishes from Eldhose Paul and second-place finishers Abdulla Aboobacker. Sathiyan Gnanasekaran earned bronze in the men’s singles table tennis event, while Sharath Kamal took home the gold. Kidambi Srikanth earned bronze in the men’s singles in badminton, while Lakshya Sen won gold. India managed to win its first-ever gold in the mixed doubles category of table tennis at the Commonwealth Games. Annu Rani also made history, as she became the first Indian female javelin thrower to win a medal, a bronze.
A few misses in an otherwise extremely effective campaign undoubtedly played a spoiler. Olympic medalist and boxing medal favorite Lovlina Borgohain left the 2022 CWG without a medal. India, the reigning women’s team table tennis champions, was eliminated by Malaysia. Manika Batra too returned without any medal.
The Indian men’s hockey team made it to the finals game but lost to Australia 7-0 and had to settle for silver.
The Indian women’s cricket team came agonizingly close to capturing the first-ever gold medal in the sport but ultimately fell to Australia in a thrilling championship match.