The 2018 Commonwealth Games, which kicked off at Gold Coast, Australia, on Wednesday, would be the first of three mega multi-discipline events India would aim to excel in the coming two years. The Asian Games will be held in just about four months, followed by the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
While the performance in the Commonwealth Games isn’t really a benchmark to check how India would do in the other two mega events, it does provide a few pointers about what to expect and which players could be the medal hopefuls in the continental event at least.
While India does well in shooting and wrestling in both the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games, it hasn’t won a weightlifting medal in the Asian Games since the turn of the century.
The only time India bagged more medals at the Asian Games than at the Commonwealth Games was in 2006, with the country’s best performance in all the Games coming between the 2010 CWG and the 2012 London Olympics.
These three charts show how India has performed at the three big multi-discipline events since 2002: