India’s haul is limited to certain disciplines

 
  Far away from home, fighting harsh weather conditions and a limited spread on the table, India was benefited by some brilliant performances from its athletes as it finished fifth in the overall medals tally with a haul of 64 (15 gold, 30 silver and 19 bronze) at the Commonwealth Games which concluded here on Sunday.

Of course, it was predicted that the 215-member Indian contingent would in no way be able to emulate the country’s best-ever showing at these Games in New Delhi 2010, where the haul was 101, including 38 gold medals.

But in finishing with India’s third best show at the Games, falling just short of the tally of 69 gained in Manchester 2002, the pointer from Glasgow for Indian sport is that it has talent, though only in limited disciplines as reflected in good measure by its overall showing here.

Any improvement in Gold Coast, four years from now, would depend upon the proper dissemination of the lessons learnt, enhanced government funding and constant exposure to international competitions.

The 12-day event had competitions in 17 disciplines offering a set of 261 medals but the Indian participation had been limited to just 14 as teams were not fielded in netball, rugby sevens and triathlon.
11 disciplines

And of these, the Indian medal haul was limited to 11 disciplines as the country’s swimmers, cyclists and lawn bowlers failed to add to the tally, though together they occupied 29 slots in the list of the 224 athletes originally cleared by the Union Ministry.

What brings to the fore is the thinking within the corridors of power that participation in such a huge Games — the third largest behind the Olympics and the Asian Games — constitute international exposure without any inkling that the competitions in disciplines such as athletics, swimming and lawn bowls have always had a quality world class field at the Commonwealth Games.
Other complaints

The other complaints were on the reduction of spending on the preparation of the Indian teams that was effected by the Government through the last two years and the suspension of the Indian Olympic Association by the International Olympic Committee for over a year.

It is against this background that the performance of the Indian contingent in Glasgow needs to be analysed.

And then, one would be able to compliment the display of the freestyle wrestlers, who together won 13 medals including 5 gold medals and the weightlifters who returned home with a haul of 3-4-5.
Severe handicap

The shooters, given the reduction of the number of gold medals on offer from 36 in New Delhi to just 19 here, expectedly did open with a severe handicap but should be seen as to have satisfactorily performed though the tally of 4-9-4 would reflect as somewhat unimpressive when compared to their contributions since the 1990 Games.

These three disciplines provided 12 out of the total 15 gold medals that India won here and the rest came through Vikas Gowda, P. Kashyap and the Chennai pair of Dipika Pallikal and Joshna Chinappa.

Incidentally, these standout performances would be in our minds as we look forward to the future.

 

 

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