Commonwealth Games 2022: Beginning of a new dawn in athletics for India?

The eleven-day sporting extravaganza of the Birmingham Commonwealth Games 2022 ended on Monday, and on the back of spectacular performances by the sportspersons, India finished fourth in the medals tally, winning a total of 61 medals including 22 gold, 16 silver and 23 bronze. This terrific performance by India's premier athletes deserves accolades, given that shooting, which had fetched India 16 medals at Gold Coast four years back, wasn't included at this year's Games. As expected, India experienced a medal rush in boxing, wrestling, weightlifting, badminton and table tennis; however, the one field which helped shoot up the country's medal tally was athletics.

At Gold Coast 2018, India could only manage three medals in the discipline. But this time around, India's athletes set new benchmarks, winning eight medals in total comprising one gold, four silver and three bronze. The gold medal won by Eldhose Paul in men's Triple Jump was the first ever in the event for India at CWG. It was almost akin to Neeraj Chopra's gold medal finish in Javelin Throw at CWG 2018. Couple that with Abdulla Aboobacker's silver in the same event and it resulted in a memorable double delight for India.

Joining the list of firsts, another remarkable medal winning performance that came in the men's 3000m Steeplechase, with Avinash Sable clinched silver. The gravity of the win can be realised by the fact that all medals in the event had by far been won by Kenyan athletes since 1998. And Sable not only broke Kenya's hegemony, but came perilously close to winning gold.

In men's Long Jump, Murali Sreeshankar, one of the favourites for a medal finish did exactly that, as he won the first-ever silver medal for India in the event. His jump of 8.08 metres was equal to that of gold winner Laquan Nairn but Sreeshankar had to settle for silver as Nairn had made the jump in his second attempt while the Indian achieved nailed it in his fifth.

Sandeep Kumar, who won bronze in men's 10km Race Walk, did it with a personal best timing, while Priyanka Goswami who took silver, shattered the National Record with a personal best timing of 43:38.83. By clinching bronze, Annu Rani won a first ever medal for India in women's javelin throw at CWG. Tejaswin Shankar's bronze in men's High Jump was another big achievement for Indian athletics at the grand event.

India's incredible show at CWG 2022 could spark the beginning of a new dawn in athletics for India. With some major events lined up, including next year's Asian Games, India can announce itself as an upcoming athletics powerhouse with every possibility of better 2022 CWG's laurels in the time to come. Will that happen? The answer to that may still be some months away, but rest assured, the upswing in trend has begun and it will, hopefully, snowball into greater achievements from India's athletes in time to come.