Commonwealth Games
Debayan Sen 6y

Six iconic Indian medals at Commonwealth Games

From Milkha Singh's unforgettable 440 yards sprint in 1958, to Deepa Karmakar's audacious Produnova in 2014, here are six iconic medals won by Indians at the Commonwealth Games.

Milkha Singh (Cardiff 1958)

Milkha Singh's gold in the 440 yards sprint at the 1958 Games in Cardiff, achieved with a timing of 46.6s, was the first announcement on the global stage of his ability. It was also India's first gold medal at the Commonwealth level.

Lila Ram Sangwan would add a second Indian gold at the same Games in heavyweight wrestling, but it was Milkha's win by 0.3s over South Africa's Malcolm Spence that would have a wider resonance at the Olympics in Rome two years later. It was Spence who edged Milkha out of a 400m medal by a tenth of a second in one of Indian sport's most iconic moments.

Syed Modi (Brisbane 1982)

Syed Modi, the youngest of eight children to a sugar mill worker father from a small town in Uttar Pradesh, became a national badminton singles champion at the age of 14 in 1976. Six years later, he emulated Prakash Padukone by winning gold at the men's singles event of the Commonwealth Games.

While Padukone had won his gold at Edmonton in 1978 without dropping a single game, Modi lost the first game of his final against England's Nick Yates before coming back strongly to pick the gold. Modi won the Indian national title eight years in a row starting with 1980, and was murdered at the age of just 26, when coming out of a training session in Lucknow in 1988.

Mohammad Ali Qamar (Manchester 2002)

The first boxer to win gold for India at the Commonwealth Games, Kolkata-born Qamar's performance in Manchester came on the back of a strong showing at the World Championships in 2001. In Manchester, he faced local favourite Darran Langley in the final and trailed 22-17 after the first three rounds of the bout. He counter-punched in the fourth and final round, scoring 10-3 and overcoming a standing count at one stage, to win what was the 24th of 30 golds won by India at the Games. Qamar is now part of the support staff of the senior men's team, and completed the international boxing federation (AIBA) two-star certificate course in March 2018.

Women's hockey team (Manchester 2002)

The underdog story that served as the inspiration for the 2007 film Chak De! India couldn't have had a more improbable finish than the 17th-ranked Indians beating world number 5 England by a golden goal in the final of the second ever hockey tournament at the Games in Manchester to claim India's only gold in the sport till date.

Drawn against England, world number 6 New Zealand and Canada in the group stages, India beat Canada 1-0 and drew with England. Defeat to New Zealand saw them face South Africa in the quarter-finals, where they trailed 3-0 at one stage. Jyoti Kullu got them a golden goal in a thrilling 4-3 comeback win to set up another meeting with New Zealand. A 2-1 win thanks to a Mamta Kharab winner took them to the clash against England, where Kharab would score a golden goal to clinch gold.

Geeta Phogat (New Delhi 2010)

Geeta's gold medal came in a fairly shallow field in the women's 55kg wrestling event at the Games in India eight years ago, but the fact that it was the first Commonwealth gold by an Indian woman in the sport made it special. Alka Tomar and Anita Sheoran would win golds too -- but Geeta's win also made up for the relative disappointment of her sister Babita, who settled for silver in 51kg.

Dipa Karmakar (Glasgow 2014)

The Produnova, often called the "Vault of Death" owing to its difficulty level, is a rare occurrence in gymnastics, but one that has become almost synonymous with Dipa Karmakar, easily the biggest breakout star in Indian gymnastics across the last four years.

Dipa pulled off a Produnova at Glasgow, wowing observers with the sheer audacity of the move, but was penalised 0.1 for her landing during one of her attempts. Her final score of 14.366 was 0.267 behind Claudia Fragapane of England, and the penalty took her 0.067 points behind Canada's Ellie Black, but did win her both a bronze, and the recognition of the global gymnastics community.

^ Back to Top ^