Does the CWG success really make India a global sporting power…well, probably

The 19th Commonwealth Games are being held in Delhi, India, from 3 to 14 October 2010 and this is the first time the Commonwealth Games have been held in India and the second time the event has been held in Asia (after the 1998 Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia).

CWG 2010, Delhi

Here are some of the grand wins:

Tejaswini Sawant,  the first Indian woman to win a World Championship, won Silver in the Women’s 50 m rifle prone singles;

Annu Raj Singh and Heena Sidhu won Gold in the Women’s 10m Air Pistol Pairs;

Discus thrower Krishna Poonia won Gold. It was exquisite to hear 35,000 and more sing the National Anthem with pride after her win at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium;

Harpreet Singh claimed yet another Gold medal for India in the Men’s 25m Centre fire Pistol event;

Sixteen-year-old Deepika Kumari won India’s first individual Archery Gold in the Recurve Individual Women’s event;

‘Golden’ girl..

Pistol shooters

Vijay Kumar and Gurpreet Singh opened the gold medal trail for India by winning the 25 m Rapid Fire Pistol (pairs) event;

Wrestler Geeta assured herself silver in the 55kg freestyle category;

History was created when Prasanta Karmakar became the first Indian Para-swimmer to get a medal, bronze in the 50m freestyle event.

It is a euphoric time for Indians to cheer their success to the fullest. If observed properly, there’s a trend going on in these events i.e. women are also taking the most of the leads.  India equalled its best ever performance in the Commonwealth Games with 31 Gold medals, just after Australia who is the holder of  64 Gold medals till now. Milkha Singh, the Flying Sikh, had remained India’s only gold winner in the marquee event since his 400m win in the Cardiff Games in 1958. India’s medal rush at the XIX Commonwealth Games has raised hopes for more success.

But wait! Does it really mean that India has become a super sports power?  It is good news that our team has done well in CWG and it is something that we can all be proud of. But calling India a super sports power is boastful and it is too early to make such a claim. Rather it’s showing potentiality in its sporting power and if this balance is maintained India would definitely make it to the numero uno position as a powerful sporting nation in the near future. It’s a kind of advantage that the best of the sporting nations are outside commonwealth. Nevertheless, the nearly concluded CWG has been a major boost to Indian sportsmen. We owe our success to all their hard work.

Good luck to all the sports persons representing India in this event. We hope to continue the gold run.