India to put up a strong challenge at the 2018 Commonwealth Games

The Gold Coast will play host to athletes from 71 nations at the 2018 CWG. This is 5th time the Games are being held in the island nation. And India is presenting a strong bid with 225 athletes taking part. This is the country’s largest contingent since the 2010 CWG held in New Delhi.

The tournament is scheduled to take place from 4th April to 15th April 2018. 18 sports are on show at the Gold Coast with 275 Gold medals on offer. India would be looking to better its performance in Glasgow 2014, where it won 18 gold medals. Its best performance came in 2010 in New Delhi where it clinched 38 gold medals, 27 silver and 36 bronze to take the total tally to 101 medals. The country has won 155 gold, 155 silver and 128 bronze for a total of 438 medal at the Commonwealth Games in 14 editions.

A look at the contingent gives the country medal hopes in various events:

• P.V. Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth and Saina Nehwal will head the badminton contingent. A total of 10 players will represent the country in 5 different events.
• The boxing group is 12 athletes strong including 8 men and 4 women. M.C. Mary Kom and Vikas Krishnan are the big medal hopes.
• Both women’s and men’s teams have qualified for the CWG 2018. Being one of the highest ranked teams, a medal is expected from both the women’s hockey team and the men’s hockey team.
• Shooting has 19 gold medals on offer with Manu Bhaker, Heena Sidhu, Gagan Narang and Vikas Kumar as the medal hopefuls.
• Squash is another medal sport for India with Deepika Pallikal leading the charge. She will be supported by Joshna Chinappa and Saurav Ghosal.
• Weightlifting has 16 medals on offer, 8 in both the men’s category and the women’s category. Vikas Thakur, Poonam Yadav, Vandna Gupta and Sathish Sivalingam are some of the names to look out for.
• Wrestling has traditionally been a medal tavern for the country. 12 gold medals are on offer at the CWG 2018. Babita Kumari, Vinesh Phogat and Sushil Kumar form the crux of the Indian challenge.
• Athletics, the largest competition on offer, has a few names to look out for. Neeraj Chopra (Javelin throw), Tejaswin Shankar (High Jump) and Seema Antil (Discus throw) are medal hopes for the country.

The world will be closely watching the Games and a spectacular performance in April will surely open the doors for the athletes in the time to come. While Canada, Australia, England and Scotland will present a great challenge to India’s athletes, India will be hoping they put the country on the world’s sporting map.