Anatomy of track record

The significance of the eight medals won by India in track and field at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games cannot be understated. This is India’s best performance in track and field at a CWG, excluding the home edition of 2010, and it is significant because it breaks new ground in some events.

India won three track and field medals at the 2018 Gold Coast CWG, all in throwing events; four years before that too, India won three medals, including two in the throws. In 2010, India won 12 track and field medals in New Delhi, an all-time high. Four years before that, India won three track and field medals, two of them in the throws, and two in 2002, including the long jump bronze by Anju Bobby George — the first-ever medal by an Indian woman at a CWG. Then, for 24 years before that, there is an absolute blank — no track and field medal at all in CWG from 1982 to 1998.

This is the reason the show this time around is heartening, and nothing more heartening than the 1-2 by Eldhose Paul and Abdulla Aboobacker in men’s triple jump — a 1-2 by an Indian pair! Avinash Sable’s smart pacing against three splendid Kenyans, and the breathtaking kick at the end, seemed more African in nature than Indian. He makes old-timers remember the great Sriram Singh at his peak in the 1970s.

In Birmingham, Murali Sreeshankar won the long jump silver, the first medal by an Indian in the event since 1978. Tejaswin Shankar’s high jump bronze is the first ever by an Indian in the event. Annu Rani is the first Indian woman to win a javelin throw medal in CWG, and Priyanka Goswami and Sandeep Kumar won silver and bronze, respectively, in the 10,000m race walk events.

Splendid Sable

Sable provided the most thrilling moments for India in track and field, finishing ahead of two Kenyans in the field — and nearly catching the third with a memorable run in the last lap. The last time a non-Kenyan athlete won a medal in the event was back in 1994 — since then, it had been a Kenyan 1-2-3 at the men’s 3,000m steeplechase until Sable split up the trio this time.

“Indians have the ability to do well in all events at the world level. We have to believe that we have skills and talent. We should not be intimated when we are up against international athletes. It is not as difficult as we often think,” Sable said after winning silver.

Sable also spoke some illuminating truths about training in India — he didn’t want to be a frog of the well, which he says is very easy.

“Training abroad was key for me. Had I stayed back and trained in India, I would have just kept breaking national records and would not have been able to challenge the Kenyans and win a medal,” Sable said.

Training abroad is the key, and the funding for it provided by the government; with it, support by non-government organisations has helped. All this contributed in making India’s show in track and field at the Birmingham CWG quite memorable, even in the absence of the superstar of Indian athletics, Neeraj Chopra.

The past

India have won six gold medals in track and field at the Commonwealth Games, five of them across the four editions from 2010.

The first-ever Indian athletics champion at the event was, of course, Milkha Singh’s gold over 440 yards in the 1958 edition, when the event was called the British Empire and Commonwealth Games.

The next gold came 52 years later, in 2010, when discus thrower Krishna Poonia won in New Delhi, where the women’s 4×400 relay team also won gold. Vikas Gowda won the discus gold in 2014 and Neeraj Chopra the javelin throw gold four years later.

At the Birmingham CWG, the sole gold was won by triple-jumper Eldhose Paul.

Three of India’s six CWG gold in track and field have been won in throwing events and one on the jumping pit. Only two have been won on the race track — in fact, Milkha Singh is still the only Indian to have won an individual gold on the track at the CWG. This is a testament to the level of competition in track and field at the CWG.

PT Usha, inarguably India’s greatest woman track athlete, believes she had a good chance of winning two gold medals in Edinburgh in 1986.

But India boycotted the event in protest against the British government’s policy of maintaining sporting ties with apartheid South Africa. Usha lost her chance. But could she have won two gold in Edinburgh? The year 1986 was her most memorable in sport — she won four gold and one silver at the Seoul Asian Games that year.

Usha’s best chance at Edinburgh would have been in the 400m and 400m hurdles events, her best suit. In Seoul, Usha won 400m in 52.16 seconds, and hurdles in 56.08 seconds — both Asian Games records.

But in the Edinburgh CWG, Australia’s Debbie Flintoff won 400m in 51.29s and 400m hurdles in 54.94s, both timings significantly better than Usha’s in Seoul. Maybe Usha would have run Flintoff close, but beating her would have required a superhuman effort — maybe Usha could have done it, maybe not. We’ll never know.

What we do know is that it was 16 years later that Anju became the first Indian woman to win a track and field medal at the CWG. — TNS

India’s gold and silver medallists at CWG

Gold

Men’s 440 yards: Milkha Singh (1958)

Women’s 4×400m relay: Manjeet Kaur, Sini Jose, Ashwini Akkunji, Mandeep Kaur (2010)

Women’s discus throw: Krishna Poonia (2010)

Men’s discus throw: Vikas Gowda (2014)

Men’s javelin throw: Neeraj Chopra (2018)

Men’s triple jump: Eldhose Paul (2022)

Silver

Men’s hammer throw: Praveen Kumar (1966)

Men’s triple jump: Mohinder Singh Gill (1974)

Women’s discus throw: Neelam Jaswant Singh (2002)

Women’s 4×400m relay: Rajwinder Kaur, Chitra Soman, Manjeet Kaur, Pinki (2006)

Women’s discus throw: Seema Antil (2010, 2014, 2018)

Men’s discus throw: Vikas Gowda (2010)

Women’s long jump:

Prajusha Maliakkal (2010)

n Women’s discus throw: Harwant Kaur (2010)

Men’s 3,000m steeplechase: Avinash Sable (2022)

Men’s triple jump: Abdulla Aboobacker (2022)

Men’s long jump: Murali Sreeshankar (2022)

Women’s 10,000m walk: Priyanka Goswami (2022)