CWG Regional Meet: India makes a strong case for inclusion of wrestling, archery and kabaddi

The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) on Sunday made a strong case for the inclusion of archery, wrestling and kabaddi as regular sports in Commonwealth Games roster at CGF's Asia and Oceania regional meet.

While kabaddi has never been a part of CWG programme, shooting and archery are two disciplines where Indian athletes have had excellent performances in past editions before it was done away during previous Games in Birmingham.

The Indian delegation, led by IOA president PT Usha along with its acting CEO and joint secretary Kalyan Chaubey and executive council member Lt Gen Harpal Singh met the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) President Dame Louise Martin and her team to discuss and deliberate topics for development of Indian sports with regards to the strategic plan being proposed by CGF.

"I welcome the steps taken on return of shooting in the 2026 Victoria Commonwealth Games. At the same time, we have sought the intervention of the CGF leadership to make Archery, Wrestling and Kabaddi as part of the Games competition roster in future," Usha was quoted as saying in a media release.

CGF and the Commonwealth Games Australia had earlier unveiled the full sport programme for Victoria 2026 CWG, featuring 20 sports and 26 disciplines, including nine fully integrated para sports.

Shooting returns at the 2026 CWG Games after being controversially dropped from the 2022 Birmingham edition. Shooting has been India's strongest sport in the Commonwealth Games with 135 medals (63 gold, 44 silver and 28 bronze) till now.

Wrestling is in third spot with 114 (49 gold, 39 silver and 26 bronze) medals. It yielded the most number of medals -- 12 (6 gold, 1 silver, 5 bronze) at the Birmingham Games. The sport has been dropped from the 2026 edition after featuring in four successive Games since 2010.

Archery, on the other hand, has featured only twice in the CWG -- in 1982 and 2010 -- and India stands second in the all-time medal tally for the sport.

"Shooting has been India's strongest sport and its return in 2026 CWG is a welcome development for India. I'm sure that the inclusion of para-shooting will also add to India's medal tally," Chaubey said.

"I believe we have made a strong case for India to have wrestling and archery back at CWG. The wrestling results at Birmingham Games is a testimony of India’s dominance in the sport with an all-time second best to Canada since the history of the Games."

In addition to workshops and extensive discussion around the forthcoming strategic plan, which will be launched later in the year, there were updates on development, a review of regional plans and sharing of best practice between delegates.

Jeroen Weimar, CEO of Victoria 2026, also attended the meeting, providing an update on progress of the next Games.