CWG 2022: Sable soars, Paul leaps, Sharath sizzles to script India's success story

About 25 percent of India's 66 medals came from the shooting range in the previous edition and not many believed that India will be able to touch even 50 but the country ended up with 61, courtesy unprecedented success in track and field events that delivered eight medals, the highest for India in a CWG edition overseas.

It indeed, was a big success story from the Birmingham Games. Eldhose Paul and Abdullah Aboobacker's rare 1-2 finish in triple jump will be cherished for long. Avinash Sable's silver in the 3000m steeplechase and Tejaswin Shankar's bronze in the high jump were also a first for India while Murali Sreeshankar's silver in the long jump was the country's first since 1978. Annu Rani too etched her name in the history books by becoming the first Indian female athlete to secure a medal in javelin throw, a bronze. Priyanka Goswami and Sandeep Kumar brought medals in the 10,000 metre race walk, contributing immensely to the success.

World Championship medallist Anju Bobby George had predicted at least seven medals from the Games but India managed to surpass that despite the absence of Neeraj Chopra, who missed the multi sporting event due to a groin injury.

A gold and silver from Lawn BowlsThe feel good story of the Games came from the lawn bowls greens in Victoria Park. A police constable, sports teacher and a forest officer combined to catch the imagination of the entire country by winning the women's fours gold in a sport, nuances of which would still be unknown to many. The team comprised Lovely Choubey, Pinki, Rupa Rani Tirkey and Nayanmoni Saikia

Inspired by them, the men's quartet too sprang a surprise by winning silver in the sport that has been part of the sports program since 1930. Navneet Singh,