Vinayak Padmadeo
BAJRANG PUNIA is not the greatest ever Indian wrestler, for that tag still belongs to the now-incarcerated Sushil Kumar, the only Indian to win a World Championships gold, which was sandwiched between bronze at the Beijing Olympics and silver at the London Olympics. What Punia has, though, are four World Championships medals, the most by an Indian. It began with a bronze back in 2013, which was followed by silver in 2018, bronze in 2019 and bronze again in 2022. In the two most important tournaments of 2021 — the Tokyo Olympics and World Championships — he was slowed down by injuries.
It is the elusive gold that drives him forward. “It is a fact that we have only one World Championships gold medal. I am working very hard to achieve that goal,” the man from Khudan village in Jhajjar had told this correspondent after his fourth Worlds medal. In 2023, he’d get another shot at the World Championships gold, in Belgrade in September.
Punia wasn’t the only big-name Indian athlete to create history in 2022. Reigning Olympics champion Neeraj Chopra, who has won every available medal that the javelin discipline has to offer, had a superb year. After becoming only the second Indian to win a medal at the World Championships, Chopra went into the off season after winning the season’s last event, the Diamond League Finals in Zurich. In the World Championships in Oregon, his best throw of 88.13 metres won him the silver medal. In Zurich, Chopra aced gold with a throw of 88.44 metres. Like Punia, Chopra has something still to achieve. The first target is to touch the 90m mark, which the 25-year-old has not yet done. He’d love to do that at the Hangzhou Asian Games, to be held in September-October.
The year 2022 saw the emergence of a new star in track & field — steeplechaser Avinash Sable. Already a cut above other Indians, Sable went toe-to-toe with Kenya’s Abraham Kibiwot at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, ending up with silver. It was a very creditable performance, for the event has long been dominated by African runners.
Race-walker Priyanka Goswami too won a hard-earned silver in Birmingham, in the 10,000 metres event, after coming through a tough battle with Kenya’s Emily Wamusyi Ngii.
Sable would be a favourite for a podium finish at the Hangzhou Asian Games.
Mira’s rare lift
Late in the year, Mirabai Chanu did the unthinkable, salvaging a lift in the snatch discipline from a ‘no lift’ situation at the World Championships in Bogota. Since she had already registered a ‘no lift’, had she not recovered to successfully lift 87kg in her third attempt, the Olympics silver medallist would have returned home without a medal. During the stunning recovery, she took a step while still in a crouched position, struggling to be in control, she stood up after hoisting the barbell, to stay in contention for a medal. She then returned to lift 113kg in clean & jerk for a combined total of 200kg to clinch an unlikely silver, her second World Championships medal after gold in 2019.
The video clip of Mira’s recovery was shared worldwide, with the weightlifting community as well as fans on social media terming it the ‘greatest ever save’. Mira too would go for glory at the Asian Games.
Thomas Cup winners
In May of this year, the Indian badminton team did the unthinkable, defeating
14-time champions Indonesia 3-0 to win their maiden Thomas Cup title. Coach Vimal Kumar credited the bonding in the team for this historic feat. The win was built on gritty performances by all the players, especially the doubles team of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy. In the final, Lakshya Sen and the doubles pair put India up 2-0, and then Kidambi Srikanth saw off Jonatan Christie for a famous win.
It showed that men’s badminton in India is prospering. Individually, Indian players have won many titles and Olympics medals, but in Bangkok, victory in the Thomas Cup showed the depth in men’s badminton. “Throughout the year we concentrate on playing our tournaments so sometimes it gets difficult. It was a conscious effort from the entire team, the team bonded as we knew we had a chance to win this time,” said HS Prannoy, one of the stars of the victory.
India would hope for a good showing at the All-England event in March, the World Championships in August, and the Hangzhou Asian Games.
The year of hockey
The video of the Indian women’s team returning to the team hotel, dancing and singing, was one of the year’s most memorable scenes for proud Indian fans. A young team led by goalkeeper Savita won the inaugural edition of the FIH Women’s Nations Cup by beating Spain 1-0. They also got a promotion for the 2023-24 FIH Pro League. “After two years of very limited hockey due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we were really fortunate that we got to play a lot of exciting tournaments this year,” Savita said. “It was an action-packed 2022, and I believe we made the most of it. We focused on playing good hockey and that really helped us grow from strength to strength.”
The men’s team too had a memorable year. A young team led by Harmanpreet Singh finished third in the FIH Hockey Pro League 2021-22, and India also clinched a silver at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games. In 2023, the men’s team would hope to get on the podium at the World Cup, to be played in Odisha in January. At the Asian Games, the men would be desperate to improve on the bronze they won in 2018, and the women would be going for a second consecutive podium finish.
Admin mode
In sports administration, there were significant changes. Legendary athlete PT Usha became the first woman to be elected as the president of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA). Former athletes such as Gagan Narang, Kalyan Chaubey, Rohit Rajpal, Dola Banerjee, Yogeshwar Dutt, Mary Kom and the still competing Sharath Kamal are all part of the executive committee of the IOA. How much difference will they make to sport in the country? Time will tell.
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