This time there will be neither defending champion Neeraj Chopra in the Commonwealth Games nor the shooting event in which India finished with a total of 16 medals last time, including seven golds. Now the question here is how India will be able to make up for these medals and will India be able to reach the tally of 66 medals including 26 gold that India won last time.
Last time India had won two gold, three silver and one bronze medals in badminton. Indian men have achieved record breaking success at the international level. While Lakshya defeated world champion Loh Kean Yew, world number one Victor Axelsen, world number three Anders Antonsen and world number seven Lee Zii Jia recently. Bronze in the World Championship and reaching the final of the All England were his major achievements. Similarly, Kidambi Srikanth did wonders to reach the finals of the World Championship apart from playing a key role in the Thomas Cup title win. Similarly, PV Sindhu has raised hopes here by winning the Syed Modi tournament, Swiss Open and Singapore Open titles this year. Vinesh was able to get India gold last time in women’s wrestling, but this time apart from her, gold is expected from Anshu Malik, who has won silver medal in the last World and Asian Championship. It will be a big challenge to retain the five gold medals in men’s wrestling which India had won last time.
Naveen in 74kg, Deepak in heavyweight and Mohit Grewal in super heavyweight category are quite young wrestlers. As always, Canada in men and Nigeria in women will pose a big challenge for the Indian women wrestlers.Amit Panghal and Mohammad Hasamuddin among the previous medal winners in boxing will be big medal hopes this time too. Also, after becoming the world champion, Nikhat Zareen has now raised hopes in the light flyweight category. In lightweight, Jasmine has raised hopes by defeating World Championship medalist Simranjit Kaur twice. Being a Southpaw boxer goes in his favour. Lovlina returned empty handed last time but after winning the Olympic medal, she will also keep up her challenge with a boosted morale. India could also benefit from having four out of eight boxers in the men’s South-Paw.
India had returned empty handed last time in hockey. Then India lost badly to England in the bronze medal match and lost to NZ in the semi-finals, while the women’s team lost to Australia in the semi-finals, in the bronze medal match, they lost to England, but since then there has been a big change in India’s performance. India won an Olympics medal after 41 years at Tokyo and then defeated many big teams in the Pro Hockey League.
The women’s team could only finish ninth in the World Cup in the past, due to which its path has become challenging. In the absence of Rani Rampal, players like Savita Poonia and Vandana Kataria are expected to exude the same Tokyo spirit. The inclusion of women’s cricket in these games has also increased the medal hopes. The teams of Australia, England and New Zealand can prove to be the biggest obstacle in India’s way.
In table tennis, it will be a big challenge for Achant Sharath Kamal, Manika Batra and Sathiyan to repeat their past performances of three gold, two silver and three bronze. In athletics, if the Indian athletes repeat the recent performance of World Championship, then leave gold, hardly Indian athletes will get bronze medals. The medal situation will improve only when Indian athletes do their personal best and the performance of other athletes declines.
In weightlifting too, India was on top like wrestling last time. This time, 14 Indian weightlifters including Mirabai Chanu can see further improvement in that record-breaking performance. It will be challenging for Poonam Yadav to save the previous gold. This time she is going to keep her challenge in 76 kg. In Judo, India cannot win eight medals (last time won three silver and five bronze) but this time the total participants in this game are going to six.
