CWG 2010 – First a trickle, then a drizzle and then a TORRENT

The title of this post is inspired by a line in an article that featured on the The Calcutta Telegraph newspaper. This one-liner was used to describe the crescendo effect in India’s medal triumph in the 19th edition of the Commonwealth Games held at Delhi. With an event of such international importance happening in India and sportspersons from all fields striving hard to prove their mettle in their home ground, I could not refrain from capturing special moments these laudable achievers offered us. Many a times, our national flag was hoisted before the medals podium. Many a times, our national anthem was played before an awestruck audience and proud winners.

I list down, in this post, all gold medals that our Indian sportspersons won in the 19th edition of Commonwealth Games, Delhi starting Oct 3-14, 2010. The shower of gold began on us on the 5th of October. On this day, we won 5 gold medals from shooting and wrestling.

Shooting

1)10 m Air Rifle Men pair event - Abhinav Bindra, Gagan Narang - win the first gold medal in CWG 2010 for India.

2)25m Pistol pair event- Rahi Sarnobat, Anisa Sayyed

Wrestling

3)Greco Roman style 96 kg men - Anil Kumar

4)Greco Roman style 74 kg men – Sanjay Kumar

5)Greco Roman style 60 kg men – Ravinder Singh

The quest for gold proceeded in full vigor with sportspersons from weightlifting arena joining in.

Shooting

6)10m Air Rifle Men (individual) - Gagan Narang

7) 25m pistol women (individual) - Anisa Sayid

8) 50m pistol men (individual) - Omkar Singh

Weightlifting

9) 58 kg category Women - Renu Bala Chanu

Wrestling

10) Greco Roman style 55 kg men - Rajendra Kumar

11) Greco Roman style 69 kg men - Ravi Kumar

Wrestling, Weightlifting and Shooting emerged the strong areas for India.

Shooting

12) Pairs 25 m Rapid Fire Pistol Shooting Men - Vijay Kumar and Gurpreet Singh

13) 10m Air Pistol Pairs Men - Omkar Singh and Gurpreet Singh

Wrestling

14) Freestyle Women 55kg - Geeta

The archers joined chorus with fellow Indian comrades. Women clinched gold in wrestling and ensured a near clean sweep; much like men did in Greco Roman style wrestling.

Archery

15) Women team recurve - Dola Banerjee, Dipika Kumari and Bombayala Devi

Shooting

16) Men's 50m Rifle three Positions (Pairs) - Gagan Narang and Imran Hassan

17) Men's 25m Rapid Fire Pistol - Vijay Kumar

18) 10m air pistol event Men (individual) - Omkar Singh

Wrestling

19) 59Kg Women Freestyle Wrestling - Alka Tomar

20) 67Kg Women Freestyle Wrestling - Anitha

The shower of gold medals continued unabated for the nation. However, it was localized over the rain bearing areas of shooting, archery, wrestling and weightlifting.

Shooting

21) 25m Centre fire Pistol (Pairs) – Vijay Kumar and Harpreet Singh

22) 50m men's rifle 3 (individual) event – Gagan Narang

Wrestling

23) 60kg Freestyle Men - Yogeshwar Dutt

24) 74kg Freestyle Men - Narsingh Pancham Yadav

Archery

25) Women Individual Recurve - Dipika Kumari

Tennis figured in the list of sports that won India gold on Oct 10, 2010. The day offered a pot pourri of golds.

26) Men's 25m Centre fire Pistol – Harpreet Singh

27) Archery Recurve Men Individual – Rahul Banerjee

28) 66kg Men Freestyle wrestling – Sushil Kumar

29) Tennis Men Single – Somdev Dev Varman

On 11, Oct 2010, India added only one gold medal to its kitty. However, the day witnessed a remarkable feat. Gold, Silver and Bronze in women's discus throw were all won by Indians. The podium shone brightly with these valorous women and nation's flag flew higher like never before.

30) Discus Throw Women – Krishna Punia

Athletics was for long deemed a drought prone arena, since 1958 Cardiff Games where Milkha Singh proved his prowess by winning a gold in 400 yards track event. On Oct 12, 2010, the shower of medals that brought merry to the nation turned into a heavy torrent bringing unprecedented joyous and proud moments. The long term drought was over.

31) Women Pairs 10m Air Pistol - Heena Sidhu and Annu Raj Singh

32) 4*400 women's relay event athletics - A.C. Ashwini, Manjeet Kaur, Mandeep Kaur and Sini Jose

Neatly completing an act of tribute to their coach - Gurbaksh Singh Sandhu, the Indian boxers won three gold medals. And the Indians went ping pong in merry, winning gold in Table Tennis for the first time.

33) Men's 62 kg light-welterweight boxing event - Manoj Kumar

34) Men's Boxing Flyweight (52 kg) event - Suranjoy Mayengbam Singh

35) Men's Super Heavyweight (Over 91kg) Boxing event - Paramjeet Samota

36) Table Tennis men's doubles - Achanta Sharat Kamal and Subhojit Saha

Dreams of a second place in the overall ranking in CWG 2010 and total medals over one hundred were turned into reality by Indian badminton players and the country's national game, hockey, earning a silver.

37) Badminton women's doubles event - Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponappa

38) Badminton women's singles event - Saina Nehwal

The above list looks flabbergasting for a nation highly undervalued in multi sports events, even by its own people. With such achievements, Indian sportspersons had every reason to party with huge gusto and we, Indians, loved getting drenched in this torrent.