YOUNG INDIA COMES TO THE FORE
With Olympic silver and bronze medallists as well as a newlycrowned world no. 1 in the side, badminton was always going to be India’s best bet. The shuttlers lived up to that billing with their best- ever haul of two golds, three silvers and a bronze.
Sindhu- Saina contesting the women’s gold medal match was surely the icing on India’s cake. Srikanth came up with a silver show in the men’s section.
The star power rubbed off on the second string as well, spurring the likes of Sikki Reddy, Rankireddy Satwiksairaj and Chirag Shetty to punch above their weight in the doubles category, not to forget the accomplished Ashwini Ponappa who played the senior’s role to perfection.
While the Sainas, Sindhus and Srikanths were expected to be among the medals it is the emergence of the younger lot, especially in doubles, that is heartening. Satwik and Chirag, aged 17 and 20 respectively, went all the way up to the final to claim India’s first ever medal in men’s doubles. Sikki and Ashwini snared the women’s doubles bronze with commendable performances. Seasoned Ashwini carried a massive load and played as many as four matches on a particular day.
Like Satwik ( son of government school teachers in rural Andhra Pradesh), Sikki too has moved from interior Telangana to Hyderabad to pursue badminton at Gopi’s Academy.
A historic gold medal in the team event was a massive plus. National coach Pullela Gopichand acknowledged, “The team gold was the highlight. To beat Malaysia was big… fantastic,” he said.
The Indians have arrived.
Of the nine medal- earning sports, wrestling provided India the second highest haul of medals at the CWG. The grapplers maintained a 100 per cent record with all the 12 landing medals — five golds, three silvers and four bronzes.
However, in stark contrast to the affluent shooters, the wrestlers came from impoverished backgrounds. Life will take an upward swing though for at least nine of them who hail from Haryana with the state government announcing hefty cash awards for the medal winners. Leading the charge at Gold Coast was one with the most popular name in women’s wrestling in India — Vinesh Phogat, daughter of wrestler and Dronacharya award winning coach Mahavir Singh Phogat’s younger brother Rajpal. She snatched gold in the 50kg freestyle category. Her cousin Babita Kumari came good as well, wrangling silver in the 53kg event. It was a tribute to their father and uncle who fought odds and overcame opposition from the community in Haryana to get the girls into the wrestling ring. With their success on the international stage, the five Phogat sisters- cousins have triggered a change in mindset and attitude towards girls in Haryana. Behind every successful man there is a woman.’ This is a saying feminists may not be overtly happy with. Manika Batra, world no. 58 and India’s no. 1 in table tennis, may just have rewritten the aphorism with her stupendous performance at the CWG into “Ahead of every successful man there is a successful woman”.
Batra was in her zone as she helped India scoop their first ever team gold medal in the women’s category. The icing on the cake was beating Singapore, who had not lost the top place since 2002,
TURN TO PAGE 36 3- 1 in the final. The gritty Indian edged out Feng Tianwei, world no. 4 and multiple Olympic medallist, to pave the way for an unlikely gold.
Batra’s stellar show marked Indian TT’s coming- ofage in the women’s category. She ended her unforgettable CWG campaign with a bronze medal in the company of G. Sathiyan in mixed doubles.
The men, who won three medals including the team gold, were in awe of Batra. “She inspired us to win the team gold. Beating Singapore was no mean task,” Sathiyan said.