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India bests England to second place, ends
Games with many firsts
Thursday, October 14, 2010 09:42:10 PM,
V.S. Karnic, IANS
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New Delhi:
India Thursday brought the curtains down on the Commonwealth Games
with many firsts - hosted it for the first time, won the highest
number of gold at 38, took the second spot in the medal table for
the first time in Games history shunting sporting power England to
third place and women sportspersons stole the thunder with top
honour in several events.
At the end of 11 days of fierce competitions, Indians set new
Games records, stunned top seeds and gold favourites and excelled
in disciplines like athletics, where they were mere also-rans for
decades.
As evening set on the Indian capital Thursday and thousands packed
the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in the heart of the host city for the
closing ceremony, the Indian medal tally read an impressive 38
gold, 27 silver and 36 bronze for a total of 101.
Though pushed to the third slot in the overall medal table England
was not far behind India in gold count at 37. Its total was way
ahead of India at 142 as it had won 59 silver and 46 bronze.
Australia continued their domination of the Commonwealth Games
with 74 gold, 55 silver and 48 bronze for a total of 177 medals.
The Games - which began after weeks of palpable tension over delay
in completing the facilities in time and was haunted by a barrage
of negative media publicity worldwide that led to many leading
international athletes to cry away - will long be remembered for
the splendid showing by women shooters, wreslters, paddlers,
archers, weightlifters and badminton players.
Krishna Poonia, a name familiar perhaps only to diehard sports
lovers, sent India ecstatic with her gold winning discus throw.
Harwant Kaur and Seema Antil followed her with a silver and bronze
for a stunning 1-2-3 finish for the first time by Indian women in
the Games.
A.C. Ashwini, Manjeet Kaur, Mandeep Kaur, Sini Jose ran race of
their life to lift the gold in the 4x400 metre women's relay.
More historic firsts by Indian women came in badminton - Saina
Nehwal getting the gold in singles and Jwala Gutta and Ashwini
Ponnappa in doubles.
Shooters Anisa Sayyed, Rahi Sarnobat, Heena Sidhu and Annu Raj are
the new stars from the 19th edition of the Games that began 80
years ago as British Empire Games, became British Empire and
Commonwealth Games in 1954, British Commonwealth Games in 1970 and
just Commonwealth Games in 1978.
Women wrestlers who etched their names in the Games records are
Alka Tomar and Anita and Geeta Devi. In archery it was the trio of
Dola Banerjee, Dipika Kumri, Bombayala Devi and Renu Bala Chanu in
weightlifing.
The Indian men winning gold included the familiar marksmen Gagan
Narang and Abhinav Bindra, Somdev Devvarman in tennis singles,
Manoj Kumar, Paramajeet Samota and Suranjoy Mayengbam Singh in
boxing.
Hours before the end of the Games, India and England were in close
race for the second spot on the medals table as both had 37 gold.
And the key to the second spot lay with the Indian women as two
golds were up for grabs badminton - one in singles and the other
in doubles.
They did not fail.
First the doubles' pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa and
later Saina Nehwal in singles rose to the challenge to firmly
place India in second place - an achievement that would have been
dismissed as a chimera before the Games.
There was a note of disappointment too for the hosts. The Indian
men's hockey team was routed by world champions Australia in the
finals at midday. Though there was not much expectation of India
winning the gold in the hockey, the margin of the loss was
overwhelming. The men conceded eight goals without scoring any -
and failed to get inspired by the presence of Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh among the spectators at the packed Major Dhyan
Chand Stadium.
(V.S. Karnic can be
contacted at vs.karnic@ians.in)
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