India ends action-packed campaign with 66 medals

The Gold Coast Commonwealth Games 2018 has come to a close, with India finishing with 26 gold, 20 silver and 20 bronze medals. The total haul of 66 medals is India's third best performance in the history of the CWG.

India's best ever performance so far has been the 2010 Delhi Games, where as the host nation it bagged 101 medals, which included 38 gold, 27 silver and 36 bronze. The second highest tally of 69 medals was at the 2002 Manchester Games, where India finished with 30 gold, 22 silver and 17 bronze medals.

However, in this edition of the Games, athletes have performed exceedingly well by winning medals in events from where India least expected a podium finish. Here is a break down of how India fared in different events at Gold Coast.

Weightlifting:

Gold: 5

Silver: 2

Bronze: 2

Records: (Women's 48 kg) Saikhom Mirabai Chanu Snatch 86kg CR, GR,

Saikhom Mirabai Chanu Clean & Jerk 110kg CR, GR

Saikhom Mirabai Chanu Total 196kg CR, Gr

(Women's 53 kg) Khumukcham Sanjita Chanu Snatch 84kg GR

Indian weightlifting has seen it all - from being rock bottom in 2008 Olympics (the doping scandal), to having a disappointing 2010 Commonwealth Games. But things started to brighten up in 2014 Glasgow Games and now culminating with a glorious outing in 2018 at Gold Coast. The last two weeks in Gold Coast have solidified Indian weightlifters as one of the best in the world. And yet again the athletes brought India glory despite inadequate support staff and through shaky finances.

The gold rush started on the very first day of the competition with Mirabai Chanu's record-breaking clean and jerk performance in the 48kg category. Then it was P. Gururaja who clinched a silver medal in the men's competition on the same day.

Indian women were not done though, as Sanjita Chanu (53kg) and Punam Yadav, whose family had to sell their buffalo in order to support her training, clinched a gold medal each in the next few days.

Sathish Sivalingam (77kg) and Venkat Rahul Ragala (85kg) added gold medals too, making India the dominant leader in weightlifting at the games.

Pardeep Singh (105kg) and Vikas Thakur (94kg) fetched silver and bronze. And then we had our 18-year-old Deepak Lather (69kg) from Haryana who became the youngest Indian weightlifter to win a medal at the Commonwealth Games by clinching a bronze medal.

All this while the weightlifters were without a physio during the entire competition. The 2018 Commonwealth Games will be remembered as a watershed moment for Indian weightlifting.

Shooting :

Gold : 7

Silver: 4

Bronze: 5

Records:

Anish Bhanwala (25m Rapid Fire Pistol): Total score of 30 - GR

Tejaswini Sawant(Women's 50m Rifle 3 Positions) - GR

Heena Sindhu (Women's 25m Pistol) - GR

Jitu Rai (Men's 10m Air Pistol) - GR

Manu Bhaker (Women's 10m Air Pistol) - GR

Sanjeev Rajput (50m Rifle 3 Positions Men's) - GR

Indian shooters landed in Gold Coast as the hot favourites after strong performances at international competitions. And the Indian marksmen lived up to the expectations by ending the Games on a high.

There were some great performances by veterans like, Tejaswini Sawant (Gold and Silver), the show stoppers in the shooting event this year were the two youngsters - Manu Bhaker, 16, who shattered the Games record with her gold medal winning performance and Anish Bhanwala, the 15-year-old who became the youngest Indian ever to win a gold medal at the Commonwealth and also broke the Games record in the process.

15-year-old Anish Bhanwala created history by clinching gold medal in 25m Rapid Pistol.   -  AFP

Gold : Jitu Rai (Men's 10m Air Pistol), Manu Bhaker (Women's 10m Air Pistol), Heena Sidhu (Women's 25m Pistol), Shreyasi Singh (Women's Double Trap), Anish (Men's 25m Rapid Fire Pistol), Tejaswini Sawant (Women's 50m Rifle 3 Positions), Sanjeev Rajput (50m Rifle 3 Positions Men's).

Silver: Anjum Moudgil (Women's 50m Rifle 3 Positions), Heena Sidhu (Women's 10m Air Pistol), Mehuli Ghosh (Women's 10m Air Rifle), Tejaswini Sawant (Women's 50m Rifle Prone),

Bronze: Om Mitharval (Men's 10m Air Pistol) and (Men's 50m Pistol), Ankur Mittal (Men's Double Trap), Ravi Kumar(Men's 10m Air Rifle), Apurvi Chandela (Women's 10m Air Rifle)

Table Tennis:

Gold: 3

Silver: 2

Bronze: 3

The table tennis event was a historic one for India. The first ever women's team gold and the first ever women's single gold. In both the wins, it was Manika Batra who played a key role. As impressive as her team effort with Mouma Das for the doubles gold was, her win over the world No. 4 from Singapore, the clear favourite to win the gold, was a win that established her as one of the best in the world. A feat, no Indian paddler, has ever achieved.

Manika Batra was a revelation for India at CWG 2018.   -  PTI

In women's doubles, Manika and Mouma won silver medals as well. The duo Sharath Kamal/G Sathiyan stood second in the men's doubles event. While the Harmeet Desai/Sanil Shetty duo grabbed a bronze medal. Manika was not done yet as she and G. Sathiyan grabbed a mixed doubles bronze. Sharath Achanta also won his bronze medal match and ended what was an extremely successful games for the team.

Wrestling:

Gold: 5

Silver: 3

Bronze: 4

In wrestling, India has always been a dominant force, despite having the ups and downs in the past decades, India entered the Commonwealth Games 2018 as the favourites. Rahul Aware opened the medal tally with a glorious gold in the 57kg freestyle category. The household name, the Olympics medal winner Sushil Kumar made history by becoming the first wrester to win gold in three consecutive Commonwealth Games. Then in women's freestyle, Vinesh Phogat grabbed a gold by beating her Canadian opponent, Jessica Macdonald. In the first period of the finals bout, she lifted Jessica on her shoulder, spun her around and then neatly dunked her on the mat.

Bajrang Punia added to the tally by winning gold in freelstyle 65kg finals and the heavyweight Sumit Malik claimed a gold in the 125kg category.

Mausam Khatri, Babita Kumari and Pooja Dhanda clinched a silver medal each. While Divya Kakran, Kiran, Sakshi Malik and Somveer won a bronze medal each to take the Indian medal tally to an impressive 12 medals in wrestling.

Athletics:

Gold: 1

Silver: 1

Bronze: 1

In track & field at international competitions, India is never considered a force and expecting a medal there is too far-fetched. But this year was different, Neeraj Chopra become the first Indian to win a gold in Javelin. With his best throw of 86.47m, Neeraj created history and has sparked a small hope in a billion hearts.

Meanwhile, Seema Punia claimed an impressive second position in the women's discuss throw, followed with a bronze medal by Navjeet Dhillon.

Squash:

Silver: 2

The Indian duo of Dipika Pallikal and Saurav Ghosal lost to Australia's Donna Urquhart and Cameron Pilley 8-11, 10-11 in a closely-contested match in the squash mixed doubles final. It was India's first ever mixed doubles medal in squash.

While in women's doubles final, Dipika and Joshna Chinappa fell short in the title clash against the New Zealand combination of Joelle King and Amanda-Landers Murphy losing 9-11, 8-11.

Boxing:

Gold: 3

Silver: 3

Bronze: 3

In boxing, India had a real medal rush and was easily the one sport where it cemented its place as a world leader at this Games. Our boxers went from never having won more than a single gold in an international boxing event to being crowned the best boxing nation of the 2018 Commonwealth Games with 3 gold, 3 silver and 3 bronze medals. The veteran M.C. Mary Kom made a sensational CWG debut by winning a gold. Gaurav Solanki and Vikas Krishan too grabbed a gold each.

Mary Kom won a gold medal in her debut appearance at Commonwealth Games.   -  PTI

Amit Pangal, Manish Kaushik and Satish Kumar won silver medals each, while Hussamuddin Mohammed, Manoj Kumar and Naman Tanwar grabbed bronze medals.

Badminton:

Gold: 2

Silver: 3

Bronze: 1

The badminton women's singles finals this year at the Commonwealth Games was an all Indian showdown between two top players - Saina Nehwal and P.V. Sindhu. Saina displayed exceptional form to came on the top and win her second singles Commonwealth gold.

The newly-crowned world No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth let slip the early advantage in the finals against Lee Chong Wei and had to settle for a silver medal. The Indian shuttlers started their campaign with a gold in the mixed team event. Moreover, the men's doubles pair of Chirag and Satwik grabbed a silver with N. Sikki Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa taking bronze in women's doubles. The Indian shuttlers contributed to India's tally with 6 medals.