CWG 2022: 5 Unknown Facts About India in the Commonwealth Games

For the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, India has sending a strong 215-member delegation. At the Games, the competitors will compete in 15 different sports in an effort to surpass the threshold of 100 medals.

India has performed admirably at CWG in recent years, taking home many medals. The Indian team has great expectations to shatter all of their existing CWG records following their best-ever Olympics performance at the 2020 Tokyo Games.

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There are a few lesser-known facts concerning India’s exploits at the Commonwealth Games that not too many people are aware of, even though the majority of India’s achievements at the Games have been well-documented and publicised.

1. The “Flying Sikh dia’s first gold medal at the CWG in 1958. Since then, he has brought honours to the nation ” won the first gold medal at the CWG: Milkha Singh, also known as the “Flying Sikh,” won India’s first gold medal at the CWG in 1958. Since then, he has brought honours to the nation from numerous international occasions.
2. First women’s medal for India: In the 1978 games, the badminton team of Ami Ghia and Kanwal Thakar won India’s first CWG medal. In the women’s doubles badminton, they won bronze. However, Ami-triumph Kanwal’s was overshadowed when Prakash Padukone won a gold medal in the same competition for men’s singles.
3. No medal in 1938 and 1954: India has performed admirably in the majority of Commonwealth Games competitions, but there have been triggering event when the country was not awarded a single medal. Two incidences of this occurred, in 1938 (Sydney) and 1954 (Vancouver).
4. Jaspal Rana, the ruler of the Indian CWG: Jaspal Rana now holds the record for the most medals won by an Indian athlete at the Commonwealth Games with 15. The legendary shooter has won 600 medals altogether in both domestic and international competition.
5. The top-5 consistency: Since the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, India has never placed lower than fifth in the medal standings. This time, Birmingham is also anticipated to put up a strong performance.