Top-10 sporting moments since Independence
Top 10 sporting moments since independence
Top 10 Sporting Moments Since Independence: On Monday we celebrate the 75th anniversary of India’s independence. During that time, India’s sporting achievements on the world stage have included a number of notable victories.
The list below ranks India’s top ten sporting moments in order of occurrence.
Olympic medal
When KD Jadhav won a bronze medal in freestyle wrestling at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, he made Indian sports history. This was the first Olympic medal won by India since independence.
Previously, Norman Pritchard had already brought home two silver medals from the track and field competition at the 1900 Paris Games for colonial India. Jadhav was India’s only Olympic singles medalist until tennis star Leander Paes won a bronze medal at the 1996 Atlanta Games, and he walked away in 1984. Jadhav was India’s only Olympic individual medalist.
Victory at the Ice Hockey World Championship
Despite India’s dominance of Olympic ice hockey, they had been unsuccessful in their attempts to win the world championship in the first two iterations.
The Indian national team finished third at the inaugural World Cup in 1971 and finished second overall in the Netherlands in 1973. In 1975, Ajit Pal Singh and his team defeated bitter opponent Pakistan in Kuala Lumpur by 2 points -1 after a thrilling and grueling match. After this momentous victory, India could not even reach the semi-finals of the World Cup.
The world marvels at Kapil’s Devils.
India, led by Kapil Dev, surprised the world by winning the 1983 Cricket World Cup. In a poor final at Lord’s, the Indians defeated the West Indies by 43 runs to claim their second consecutive title. The victory started a cricket revolution across the country and the sport has changed significantly since then.
The historic bronze medal goes to Malleswari.
Karnam Malleswari, a weightlifter, became the first woman from India to win an Olympic medal when she took bronze in the 69 kg division in Sydney in 2000. At the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, Malleswari broke the barrier in Australia.
Anand is at the peak of his game.
In 1988, at the age of just 18, Viswanathan Anand became the first Indian to attain the title of Grandmaster. In 2000, the Chennai-born magician won the title of world champion by defeating Spaniard Alexei Shirov in the championship match in Tehran. Anand was the one who set the pace for the game of chess in India and he has been instrumental in India becoming one of the leading figures in chess.
The Olympic triumph of Bindra
Abhinav Bindra ended India’s long wait for an Olympic gold medal in an individual sport when he won the 10m air rifle event in Beijing in 2008.
He brought home the country’s first-ever Olympic gold medal. Shooter Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore’s performance at the previous competition in Athens earned him a silver medal in the double trap event. That was the best result by an Indian athlete up to that point.
The two Olympic medals that Sushil won
After winning a bronze medal in Beijing in 2008 and a silver medal in London in 2012 in the 66kg weight class, Indian wrestler Sushil Kumar made history by becoming the first Indian athlete to win two Olympic individual medals. Sushil’s accomplishments served as motivation for a whole new generation of wrestlers.
Sindhu emulates Sushil
Badminton star PV Sindhu followed in Sushil’s footsteps and became only the second Indian athlete to win multiple individual Olympic medals when she won a bronze medal at last year’s Tokyo Olympics. Additionally, Hyderabadi has the honor of becoming the first Indian woman to win an Olympic silver medal at the 2016 Rio Games.
First gold medal for Chopra in athletics
When Neeraj Chopra won the country’s first Olympic medal in track and field in Tokyo last year, it was a gold medal and he won it too. This was a great success for the country. On his second attempt, the javelin thrower shot 87.58 meters and thus won the coveted medal.
Victory in the Thomas Cup
In May this year, the Indian Shuttles won the Thomas Cup for the first time by beating Indonesia 3-0 in the league game in Bangkok. The Indians reached the final after beating Denmark and Malaysia 3-2 in the quarterfinals and semifinals respectively.
Many people contributed to India’s victory including Kidambi Srikanth, Lakshya Sen, Kerala’s HS Prannoy and the doubles team of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy. This was an important victory for India.