India would be certainly proud of its achievement this time in commonwealth games, beating England and Canada in games is no small feat and coming 2nd certainly isn’t either. The remarkable performance of getting 101 medals was showcased by one state in particular which has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. Though their effort in showcasing India’s strength has certainly lead some people to appreciate them.
Leading this pack of gold was a state known only for honour killings or female foeticide, Haryana (there is even a movie coming on the events named Akrosh).Fittingly so when discus thrower Krishna Punia won the gold she said that all the winners were Jats that is Harwant Kaur who won silver and Seema Antil who won bronze.(may be it was an inner desire to tell media that they were painting the whole community with same color) Keeping that aside Haryana as a state truly out performed many of the countries participating in the commonwealth games and with its tally alone and number of golds it stands 5th.
“Social scientists will point to a co-relation between community, environment and sporting success. The Masai tribesmen put Kenya on the world map with their natural aptitude as steeplechaser and middle distance runners. The Ethiopian tribes became renowned marathon runners. Runners of West African descent — whether from Jamaica or the United States — are born to run fast. Perhaps, we now need to consider that the muscular Jats are built to wrestle or throw the discus (not to forget cricket , Hockey and Shooting too). ” quotes Rajdeep Sardesai.
Haryana has certainly made its mark in this commonwealth games with a startling performance from the state. The most medals for it was won in wrestling with the likes of Phogat sisters leading the charge and sonepat for one has become a district of gold creators.
Not far behind are the boxers of bhiwani which got 2 gold and 3 bronze. Vijender Singh’s controversial bout will always remain part of the commonwealth history but so will Manoj Kumar’s and Paramjeet Samota’s gold in final. Last time it was only Akhil kumar who won the boxing gold but this time Haryana got two and India three.
This success has been also attributed to Hooda governments’ efforts to support sportspersons, though on occasion he is seeing quoting “I am sportsman.” His stint as two time chief Minister was taking a beating after the negative publicity his state was taking but certainly he could take a breather with commonwealth success story before media gets going with the usual stuff.
Haryana in past lacked tremendously in context of the infrastructure of sports but that was over come by the sheer zeal to perform by its athletes. The Hooda government now should focus on creating high class stadiums so that ground level support is encouraged, though he might say that he has got stadiums built but there numbers then is few.
The sports which have been dominating and getting it medals namely Boxing and Wrestling need to be supported more. The prize money offered in sporting events also need to increase. Haryana government should also not hide behind the recent success and help create other sports to rise too. The events such as athletics and swimming needs to be supported as these are the events which would be giving us more medals.
The success could also be used in eliminating social evils of female –infanticide as the girls who have won could become the role models of young girls and parents can be encouraged to support their girls. Saina Nehwal success story could be repeated again where a father goes out of his way to make his daughter a world champion and same goes for Krishna Poonia who also hails from Haryana though is married in Rajasthan. Her story is where the brothers and father supported and then her husband who helped get her to this level. Husbands can also take some heed where they can become facilitators in the success of their wives and will also be given due credit and their egos will also be not hurt in the process.
There is a way out for Haryana with the current success stories where they can revive their lost image and get rid of the chauvinistic tag associated with the men of Haryana , now whether they do this is certainly upon them since the rest of the India will be watching.
Those who made Haryana proud:
Gold :
Ravinder Singh : Wrestling Men’s Greco-Roman 60 kg
Anil Kumar : Wrestling Men’s Greco-Roman 96 kg
Sanjay Kumar : Wrestling Men’s Greco-Roman 74 kg
Rajender Kumar : Wrestling Men’s Greco-Roman 55 kg
Geeta Singh Phogat : Wrestling Women’s freestyle 55 kg
Anita Tomar :Wrestling Women’s freestyle 67 kg
Yogeshwar Dutt: Wrestling Men’s freestyle 60 kg
Krishna Poonia :Athletics Women’s Discus Throw
Annu Raj Singh :Shooting Women’s 10m Air Pistol (Pairs)
Manoj Kumar : Boxing Men’s Light Welterweight 64 Kg
Paramjeet Samota : Boxing Men’s Super heavyweight +91 Kg
Saina Nehwal : Badminton Women’s Singles
Silver :
Manoj Kumar : Wrestling Men’s Greco-Roman 84 kg
Nirmala Devi : Wrestling Women’s freestyle 48 kg
Babita Kumari : Wrestling Women’s freestyle 51 kg
Anuj Kumar :Wrestling Men’s freestyle 84 kg
Joginder Kumar :Wrestling Men’s freestyle 120 kg
Saina Nehwal : Team event Badminton
Bronze :
Sunil Kumar : Wrestling Men’s Greco-Roman 66 kg
Dharmender Dalal :Wrestling Men’s Greco-Roman 120 kg
Prasanta Karmakar: Swimming Men’s 50 m freestyle Para
Suman Kundu :Wrestling Women’s freestyle 63kg
Seema Antil :Athletics Women’s Discus Throw
Jai Bhagwan: Boxing Men’s Lightweight 60 kg
Dilbagh Singh :Boxing Men’s Welterweight 69 Kg
Vijender Singh: Boxing Men’s Welterweight 75 Kg
INQUISITION 