Good Work India at Common Wealth Games

Common Wealth games ended yesterday. It was an interesting 10 day tour which helped us witness all different variety of games. India's performance at these games was marginally well. Though their medal tally reduced significantly, but Indians managed to make a significant mark in some games. 

It is clear now that, we hold a good control over shooting events. India managed to grab as many as 17 medals in different events. Of course, the number of gold in these 17 medals is less, but still, it proves our hold on this game. Abhinav Bindra as expected brought one Gold for India. He has declared it to be his last Common Wealth stint. I believe he has done a great service to Indian sports by not only winning Gold but also promoting this game to such an extent that we have started grabbing most of the medals of the sport.

Shooting is followed by another game which brought India 13 medals. It is Wrestling. Two names, Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt are a must. These two names have been rounds for some time now and I guess now they should be included in the list of legends. While Sushil Kumar made us learn that we can win Wrestling, Yogeshwar Dutt taught us the meaning of hard work and perseverance. This times Yogeshwar's performance was beyond limit of any wrestler in his weight category. He managed to win all his matches with 2 minutes. There was simply no match for him including Finals. No wonder, more and more better wrestlers including girls have started not only knocking the doors but even grabbing golds in their first ever attempts.

There is a little disappointment with Boxing though. We had a chance of winning four golds here but we ended up loosing all four of our final bouts. And we did not just lost, our boxers including the famous Vijender Singh were at times not able to stand straight on their feet. It was painful to see their fights.

This time Table Tennis and Squash teams also managed to bring home some laurels. It was good to see our teams doing good on these fronts too.

I was impressed the way Kashyap won his Gold in Badminton. It was a tough fight against the young 19 years old Singaporean. The opponent was not just good but amazing. The way he was covering the ground was astonishing.  He made me believe at a point that the Gold is going their way. But Kasyap fought back with such an aggression, that the kid on the other side got tired and pretty much lost his way. Although, he made Kashyap struggle to the maximum possible extent before loosing control over Gold.

In contrast, Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponappa lost their Gold in a most pathetic manner I have ever seen. I was wondering whether this is a Common Wealth Final games. The two ladies were hardly making any movement and were playing all using their hand and wrist. There hardly was any court coverage. Even I, who has played Badminton to marginal competition level could find so many gaps left in the court. Some of Ashwini's shots even reminded me of the famous hindi song "Dhal Gaya Din, Ho gayi Raat" where Jitendra and an actress are playing a funtime outdoor badminton game. I think its high time India needs alternativce doubles team.

India once again lost the final of Hockey to Australia. Some how, Australia is always a barrier for India, which we find difficult to cross. We need to come out of this issue with Australia and build ourself so strong that no matter which team comes infront, its their time to fear and not ours.
This time we got some success in Athletics and Gymnastics too, which is welcoming.

Over all India did well. I expected 80 medals, but we could reach upto 64. We scored 15 golds and as many as 25 silvers.Which means, Indians could reach the finals of 40 events. That is not bad.

I will avoid making any comments on the last minute controversy of 2 Indian officials bring shame to the Country.