Pause, rewind, play: When Krishna Poonia led India’s medal sweep in women’s discus throw at CWG 2010

While the Commonwealth Games usually means medals galore for sportspersons from India, athletes have historically had little to celebrate due to the high level of competition. So far, the country has won just five gold medals in the history of the Games when it comes events in the track and field.

Milkha Singh was the first Indian sprinter to stand atop the podium at the 1958 Games in Cardiff and the country had to then wait for 42 years for a track and field gold medal.

Eventually, it came in front of home fans when Krishna Poonia led a historic clean sweep of medals for India at the 2010 edition in New Delhi. Three medals on offer in the women’s discus throw, all three went to Indian athletes.

Seema Punia and Neelam Jaswant Singh had come close to the top of the podium in the earlier two editions of the Games but returned home with a silver medal. Though the three Indians in fray in New Delhi were definite medal contenders, not many among even the athletics fraternity were optimistic of a gold medal.

It probably helped the Indian contingent that Australian world champion Dani Samuels pulled out of the competition. But defending champion Elizna Naude of South Africa was in the fray and so was New Zealand’s 2002 gold medal winner Beatrice Faumuina.

Poonia had become a mother in 2001. She continued her career on the insistence of her husband and coach Virender Poonia. On the day in the capital city, she was the one who set the marker with the very first throw of 61.51m. She committed fouls in three of her next five throws and could not cross the 60m mark again but the first throw was enough for her to bag the gold medal.

With Naude and Faumunia having forgettable outings in front of a packed Jawaharlal Nehru stadium, an Indian clean sweep of medals started looking like a distinct possibility once Harwant Kaur cleared the 60m mark on her third attempt to consolidate her second position in the standing.

Seema Antil then made it a top-three finish for India, an achievement as rare as the gold itself.

While Poonia became the first Indian woman athlete to clinch a gold medal at the Games on that day, the 4x400 women’s relay team then added another gold to the country’s medal’s tally.

Speaking about the triumph and how she had been dreaming about such a feat, Poonia later said: “I had been thinking in my mind that no Indian women had won a gold medal in the Commonwealth Games before that and I used to dream of standing on the victory podium with the national anthem playing in the background.”

She dedicated the medal to all the Indians, calling the moment as fantastic and nothing could be better than winning the gold in front of home fans. The achievement was made even more special by the fact that she had almost given up the sport not too long ago.

“I can’t express my happiness to see all the support. I enjoyed it and I thank all the people who came to support me,” she added, as per a BBC news report.

“The crowd inspired me to the medal,” said runner-up Kaur. “They supported me right from the beginning.”

Those present at the stadium that night believe they saw something special unfold before their eyes. The atmosphere is said to have been electric and the pride of hearing the national anthem at the track and field event after such a long wait was evident on the athletes’ faces.

And it remains the first and only time that Indians swept all three medals on offer in a track and field event at the Commonwealth Games, a feat that is unlikely to be eclipsed anytime soon.

Krishna Poonia also made the headlines in 2018 when she was hailed for taking the initiative to go after molesters and helping three women who were being assaulted in Rajasthan.