India travelled to Glasgow with expectations suitably calibrated.
These were, after all, the Commonwealth Games in a scaled-down format. The programme had been trimmed, leaving India with fewer medal prospects. Six of the 12 sports in which India won a medal at the 2022 edition, accounting for 30 of its 61 medals, had been axed. For many athletes, the competition was never meant to be the peak of the season. With the Asian Games looming next month, Glasgow was seen more as a checkpoint than a destination.
Yet, by the time the curtains came down on Sunday, India’s campaign had become one of its most memorable in recent CWG history — not merely because of the medal tally, with India surpassing expectations to finish fourth overall with 39 medals, including 13 gold, 17 silver and nine bronze, but because of the number of barriers broken.
It was a Games of firsts.
Seven boxing gold medals, India’s best-ever return at the Commonwealth Games; Mirabai Chanu becoming the first weightlifter to win three consecutive CWG gold medals; a maiden decathlon medal through Tejaswin Shankar; Gulveer Singh becoming the first Indian to win medals in the men’s 5,000m and 10,000m, and the first track and field athlete from the country to win two medals at the same Games; ten track and field medals, led by the para-athletes, who won three golds.
This marked India’s best athletics haul outside a home Commonwealth Games. Judo, too, produced golden moments that suggested the sport may finally be ready to move beyond sporadic success.