Even before the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 had started, media gave non-stop coverage to the World Cup warm-up games but missed out on praising the talents who brought glory to India. Let’s switch our attention to other sports and support our athletes who have absolutely everything to win medals for the nation.
Sakshi Malik and Vinesh Phogat won a Bronze medal for India at Asian Wrestling Championships. Sakshi Malik is a woman wrestler. She also became the first female Indian wrestler who won a medal at the Olympics.
Cut to Boxing, India once again won medals in four men’s categories (52kg, 81kg, 91kg and +91kg) and three in women’s (51kg, 57kg and 75kg) to finish the campaign with 12 of the 18 gold medals at India Open which was held in May.
World Championship medallist Sarita Devi clinched her first gold medal in three years beating Simranjit Kaur 3-2 and Olympic bronze medallist Mary Kom saw off a brave fight by former national champion Vanlal Duati of Mizoram to become the winner. Nikhat Zareen and Jyoti bagged the bronze medals.
Then the Indian contingent ended up winning 16 medals at the Asian Wrestling Championships. The wrestler Harpreet Singh won silver in 82 kg while Gyanender settled for bronze in 60 kg.
Out of the 16 medals, one gold, three silver and four bronze were won by men’s freestyle wrestlers, four bronze by women and three silver and one bronze by Greco-Roman wrestlers.
Coming to Rugby, 26 Indian women scripted history on June 22 as they won their first-ever international 15s rugby match. The ones who represented the nation were mothers as they left kids at home for grandparents to babysit and some even left jobs.
India outsmart Singapore 21-19 to finish third in the four-team Asia Women’s Division 1 Rugby XVs Championship.
Rugby India had posted: “Our Indian Women’s Rugby Team creates HISTORY!!!” The word in all caps demanded instant attention. “India pull off a stunner against top-ranked Singapore to register their first-ever test match victory! We tip our hats to you ladies. Go INDIA.”
Indian athletes won athletics, aquatics, cycling, judo, powerlifting, table tennis, roller skating, badminton, basketball traditional, handball traditional and football 7-a-side. Overall, our athletes won 60 gold, 83 silver and 90 bronze and the event came to a close on March 21.