India has managed to win a big medals tally in Commonwealth Games 2010 due to a spectacular show by the Sportswomen of the country. These Sportswomen have out shown and out performed their male counterparts. This women coming from diverse backgrounds (One gold medalist is not yet an adult and is daughter of a auto driver from a small town. The other history creator Krishna Punia is mother of a 9 yr old) have come up trumps against all odds. And not just in Tennis or Badminton, they have stormed the erstwhile male bastions like wrestling and Weightlifting too. This is not to berate the performance of the Men athletes and frankly Sports achievement for the country should have no gender bias. While playing for the country no one’s achievement can be lesser or more than other. But the heart warming show by the Indian women in the games does require a special mention and a round of cheers from one and all. And in doing so they have aimed at, threw out, shot down , punched, laughed at all the negativism, stereotyping, discrimination at one go. They are a feminist’s delight, these girls. They are hard as it comes, tough as nails women. Some question the absence of top stars and level of competition in the field, but now the future belongs to theses ladies. Krishna Poonia  Krishna Poonia The stellar performances by the Indian Superwomen. Krishna Poonia ’s Gold in Discus throw to end a 52 year drought in Track and Field events was not enough. Poonia ended India's 52-year wait for an athletics gold medal at the Commonwealth Games when she led the home nation to a clean sweep in the women's discus on October 11, 2010. Poonia, who has a nine-year old son and is coached by her husband Virender, burst into tears as she described the sacrifices she had to make in her bid for glory. "I had not seen my son for six months. Both I and my husband were away for training. It's very difficult to stay away from your kid as you all know," a sobbing Poonia said. |
The Golden Girls A day later the 4X400 Women relay team threw the nation into a frenzy when "Manjit Kaur, Sini Jose, Ashwini and Mandeep Kaur" ran a dream run egged on by a passionate crowd. Incidentally Indian men’s team finished last after qualifying for the finals of the same event. . Harwant Kaur and Seema Antil’s silver and bronze were like icing to the cake The power girls Geeta Kumari, Alka Tomar and Anita won gold in their respective weight categories in a show case of women power literally. Wrestling generated lot of buzz and was an instant hit with the fans. These women left everybody in their awe. No messing with the power girls here. In *weightlifting* Indian women has been world beater for long. CWG games were not a very happy outing for the wrestling contingent. They could get only 3 Gold but the good news was that there was no reported dope offence, something that has threatened the very root of the sport. *Renu Bala Chanu, Soniya Chanu , Sandhya Rani* have taken on from where Kunjurani devi and Karnam Malleswari left. It is one discipline where medals are expected in Asian Games as well as Olympics. Archery girls  Deepika Kumar In Archery, the way young Deepika Kumar blew her competitors away, in Women’s Recurve individual was mesmerizing. This 17 year girl of humble background is lovingly called Baby Archer. She later combined with her idol the veteran *Dola Banerjee* and *Bombayala Devi* to win the team event of Women’s Recurve event.. Shooting girls Narang and Manvajit Sandhu were supposed to rule the roost, which they did to a large extent. But the real surprise has been the medals won by the women contingent. *Anisa Sayeed and Rahi Sarnobat* started with a Gold in 25m Pistol(Pairs) followed by Tejaswini Sawant and Lajjakumari’s Silver in 50m Rifle 3 Positions( Pairs) on the very first day of shooting event. Anisa and Rahi then did a 1-2 in 25m Pistol the next day.*Heena and Annu Singh* clinched another gold in 10m Air Pistol(Pairs). These girls sure know to hit the target.  Tejaswini Sawant |
Strong Woman *Saina Nehwal* has lived up to her billing and is all set to play for the Gold in Women’s Badminton Singles. Saina Nehwal created history by becoming the first Indian woman to win the singles gold in badminton at the Commonwealth Games as she saved a match point to beat Malaysian Mew Choo Wong 19-21, 23-21, 21-13 in an edge-of-the-seat thriller  Saina Nehwal |
