Commonwealth Games 2022: PM Narendra Modi interacts with India's contingent

Today, PM Modi met and congratulated the indian contingent of Commonwealth Games 2022. He hosted them at his official residence and praised their efforts for making the country proud. 

Speaking on the occasion, Prime Minister said that "The golden period of Indian sports is knocking on the doors." 

He also hailed the gutsy show of the Indian contingent which returned with 61 medals from the Commonwealth Games.

"The real assessment of this performance can't be made with just number of medals, our athletes competed neck-to-neck. There may have been a difference of 1s or 1cm but we will make that up I am confident of that," Modi said during his speech.

"It is just a start and we are not going to just sit quietly, golden period of Indian sports is knocking on the doors," added the Prime Minister. 

Elated to interact with our CWG 2022 contingent. Entire nation is proud of their outstanding achievements. https://t.co/eraViqKcnl

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 13, 2022

He further talked about importance of winning medals in different sports and said "Since last time, we have won medals in four new sports, from lawn bowls to athletics, out performance has been spectacular. This performance will help increase youth's interest in new sports. We have to improve our performance in new sports."

Earlier, Modi had tweeted, "Looking forward to interacting with India's CWG 2022 contingent at my residence tomorrow, 13th August at 11 AM. The entire nation is proud of the accomplishments of our athletes at the games."

Looking forward to interacting with India's CWG 2022 contingent at my residence tomorrow, 13th August at 11 AM. The entire nation is proud of the accomplishments of our athletes at the games.

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 12, 2022

As life in Birmingham returned to normal on Wednesday, August 10, the athletes that were the centre of attraction for the last 11 days of sports extravaganza were already on their way back.

The Indian contingent, whatever is remaining of it as the weightlifting, wrestling, athletics, and judo squads reached India even before others, only to leave Birmingham basking in glory as they pulled off some great performances to finish fourth in the medals table with 61 medals -- 22 gold, 16 silver and 23 bronze.

Australia as expected topped the table with 178 medals (67-57-54) but were run close by hosts England, who produced their best-ever performance ending with 176 medals (57-66-53) while Canada were a distant third with 92 medals (26-32-34).

The Indians have all the reasons to be proud of their Birmingham show as they managed to win these many medals without contribution from shooting, which had earned us 16 medals in Gold Coast when India had finished with 66 medals and a third place in the standings.

India`s best performance at the Commonwealth Games was in 2010 as hosts -- a second place finished with 101 medals (38-27-36). But the 2010 edition had more sports besides shooting like archery and tennis in which India won medals.

So, if we take those things into consideration, Birmingham 2022 was huge success for India. There were gains for India at these Games which augurs well taking into account next year`s Asian Games and the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

The most heartening aspect of India`s performance in Birmingham was the eight medals won in track and field with youngsters like steeplechase Avinash Sable, triple jumpers Eldhose Paul and Abdulla Aboobacker, walkers Priyanka Goswami and Sandeep Kumar, javelin thrower Annu Rani, long jumper Murali Sreeshankar and Tejaswin Shankar stealing the show. India claimed eight medals in athletics including gold in the triple jump by Eldhose Paul, the first gold medal in that discipline by an Indian the silver won by Mohinderpal Singh Gill in 1974 was our best in TJ.

With inputs from PTI and IANS