Commonwealth Games 2022: Athletics medal rush, new sports make up for Shooting's absence in India's medal haul

When Shooting was excluded from the Commonwealth Games 2022 programme, it was expected that it would drastically bring down India's medal count from the 2018 CWG. After all, Shooting has been India's favourite sport at the CWG, contributing 135 medals to the overall count of 503 before this edition.

Even at the 2018 CWG, the maximum medals had come in Shooting (16), taking India up to third spot with 66 medals, behind only Australia and England.

While the absence of Shooting has been felt this year, some new sports - Lawn Bowls and Cricket - and some sports where India have won medals in the past but failed to do so last time - Hockey and Judo - have helped close the gap. Apart from that, there has been an exponential rise in the number of medals won in Athletics this time.

Most other sports like Boxing and Table Tennis have recorded marginal decreases in performance.

Total Medals won in 2018 - 66

Total Medals won in 2022 - 61

Here's a sports-wise breakdown of the medals won by India this time, comparing it to the respective medal count from last time around

Athletics

2018 - 1 gold, 3 total

2022 - 1 gold, 8 total

Neeraj Chopra had won the only Athletics gold last time. While he was himself absent from the Games this time, his historic feat at the Olympics leading to an Athletics wave in the country would have contributed to the huge rise in the medals contributed by Athletics this time. While there were 3 medals won last time, there have been 8 medals this time.

While Avinash Sable won a historic silver in the Men's 3000 m steeplechase, Men's Triple Jump gave India a rare gold-silver combination in Eldhose Paul and Abdulla Aboobacker. Murali Sreeshankar also won a silver medal in Long Jump, missing out on the gold by less than 1 centimetre.

Badminton

2018 - 2 gold, 6 total

2022 - 3 gold, 6 total

Saina Nehwal and India's Mixed team had won the two golds last time. This time around, PV Sindhu, who had been denied the gold medal by Saina Nehwal last time, and Lakshya Sen won the two gold medals in singles while the doubles duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty won the Men's Doubles gold.

Boxing

2018 - 3 gold, 9 total

2022 - 3 gold, 7 total

Mary Kom, Gaurav Solanki and Vikas Krishnan had won the three Boxing golds last time. This time they were brought home by Nikhat Zareen, Nitu Ghanghas and Amit Panghal. There was a marginal decrease in the overall medal count though.

Para Powerlifting

2018 - 0 gold, 1 total

2022 - 1 gold, 1 total

Sudhir won India's first-ever gold medal in Para-Powerlifting this time.

Squash

2018 - 0 gold, 2 total

2022 - 0 gold, 2 total

The only sport in which India have an identical medal count in both editions. Saurav Ghosal was part of both the medals this time. However, what would make this edition more special for him is that he won India's first ever individual medal in the sport.

Table tennis

2018 - 3 gold, 8 total

2022 - 4 gold, 7 total

Other than Boxing, Table Tennis was the one sport where India's medal count has decreased from last time. Despite Achanta Sharath Kamal's four medals, the women's team's disappointing performance meant our medal count dropped.

Weightlifting

2018 - 5 gold, 9 total

2022 - 3 gold, 10 total

India topped the Weightlifting tally this time like last time around, but there were several opportunities missed to increase the gold count. Sanket Sargar missed the gold medal due to an injury while medal prospect Punam Yadav failed to register a single Clean and Jerk lift.

Wrestling

2018 - 5 gold, 12 total

2022 - 6 gold, 12 total

A marginal improvement in the medal count was recorded this time. Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat were the two wrestlers who won gold medals in both the editions.

Only in 2018:

Shooting

2018 - 7 gold, 16 total

Only in 2022:

Lawn Bowls - 1 gold, 2 total

Judo - 0 gold, 3 total

Cricket - 0 gold, 1 total

Hockey - 0 gold, 2 total