India hopes to make surprise gains at CWG

BIRMINGHAM: India’s top-five standing in the Commonwealth Games will be threatened in shooting’s absence while the Birmingham 2022 organisers would look to deliver a successful sporting spectacle after a challenging build-up.

The opening ceremony at the Alexander Stadium on Thursday evening will mark the beginning of the sporting extravaganza that remains huge in scale but is fighting to remain relevant.

The UK is hosting the mega event for the third time in the last 20 years with the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) unable to attract new bidders out of the 56 countries that made up the sporting body due to cost constraints. The CGF has 72 members but is made up of 56 countries.

“We need to make the Games more affordable and take it to cities which are yet to host them,” Birmingham 2022 CEO Ian Reid said.

India’s top-five finish not a given this time

While India remains far from becoming a sporting superpower, the CWG have been a happy hunting ground for the largest nation in the Commonwealth.

A top-five finisher since the 2002 edition, India has relied a lot on shooting which was controversially dropped from the Birmingham Games programme.

In the Gold Coast Games four years ago, shooters won 25 per cent of India’s total medals of 66 and the sport had contributed seven gold. The big question is how will India compensate for the absence of shooting?

A bagful of medals are expected in weightlifting, badminton, boxing, wrestling and table tennis but they might not be enough to offset the loss caused by shooting’s absence.

Athletics, in which India has won only 28 medals in the event’s 72-year-old history, was expected to be a dark horse this time but Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra’s late pull out due to injury has come as a huge setback.

Sekar Dhanalakshmi, who was to compete in women’s 100m and 4x100m relay, and Aishwarya Babu, who was to feature in long jump as well as triple jump, were pulled out of the 36-member team after failing dope tests.

A gold rush, however, is expected in wrestling with all 12 participants, including defending champions Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia, expected to finish on the podium. In Gold Coast, wrestlers tallied 12 medals, including five gold.

Weightlifters, who aggregated nine medals including five gold four years ago, are ready to emulate that performance. The field will be led by Olympic silver medallist Mirabai Chanu.

The shuttlers, led by superstar P V Sindhu, will be expected to win medals in the women’s singles, men’s singles, men’s doubles and mixed team category. The other stars in the squad include World Championships medallists Kidambi Srikanth and Lakshya Sen.

Hockey will be among the most widely followed sports from India’s point of view and the players, both men and women, will be looking to make amends for the disappointment of the Gold Coast edition when the team returned empty handed.