Commonwealth Games 2022: India eye top-five position, FULL SCHEDULE of Indian athletes, all details HERE

Photo: IANS

India’s top-five standing in the Commonwealth Games will be threatened in shooting’s absence while the Birmingham 2022 organisers would look to deliver a successful sporting spectacle after a challenging build-up. The opening ceremony at the Alexander Stadium on Thursday (July 28) evening will mark the beginning of the sporting extravaganza that remains huge in scale but is fighting to remain relevant.

The UK is hosting the mega event for the third time in the last 20 years with the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) unable to attract new bidders out of the 56 countries that made up the sporting body due to cost constraints. The CGF has 72 members but is made up of 56 countries.

Birmingham too was rather a late entry in the bidding for the the 2022 edition after South Africa expressing its inability to stage the event back in 2017. “We need to make the Games more affordable and take it to cities which are yet to host them,” Birmingham 2022 CEO Ian Reid told news agency PTI.

Presenting the flag bearers @Pvsindhu1 & @manpreetpawar07 for #TeamIndia at the opening ceremony of @birminghamcg22 #EkIndiaTeamIndia #WeAreTeamIndia pic.twitter.com/efUCiYows6 — Team India (@WeAreTeamIndia) July 27, 2022

The Games, set to be the biggest and most expensive sporting event in the UK since the 2012 London Olympics, have had to deal with the adverse impact of COVID-19 though the budget remains at 778 million pounds till date. That number needs to come down for the smaller nations interested in bidding for the event.

India’s top-five finish not a given this time. While India remains far from becoming a sporting superpower, the CWG have been a happy hunting ground for the largest nation in the Commonwealth. A top-five finisher since the 2002 edition, India has relied a lot on shooting which was controversially dropped from the Birmingham Games programme.

India’s complete schedule for 2022 Commonwealth Games (by sport)

Athletics

July 30: Nitender Rawat (Men’s Marathon)

August 2: Avinash Sable (Men’s 3000m Steeplechase)

Murali Sreeshankar (Men’s Long Jump)

Muhammed Anees Yahiya (Men’s Long Jump)

Dhanalakshmi Sekar (Women’s 100m)

Jyothi Yarraji (Women’s 100m hurdles)

Manpreet Kaur (Women’s Shot Put)

Navjeet Kaur Dhillon (Women’s Discus Throw)

August 3: Aishwarya B (Women’s Triple Jump)

August 5: Abdulla Aboobacker (Men’s Triple Jump)

Praveen Chithravel (Men’s Triple Jump)

Eldhose Paul (Men’s Triple Jump)

DP Manu (Men’s Javelin Throw)

Rohit Yadav (Men’s Javelin Throw)

Sandeep Kumar (Men’s 10km race walk)

Amit Khatri (Men’s 10km race walk)

Aishwarya B (Women’s Long Jump)

Ancy Sojan (Women’s Long Jump)

Annu Rani (Women’s Javelin Throw)

Shilpa Rani (Women’s Javelin Throw)

Manju Bala Singh (Women’s Hammer Throw)

Sarita Romit Singh (Women’s Hammer Throw)

August 6: Amoj Jacob (Men’s 4x400m relay)

Noah Nirmal Tom (Men’s 4x400m relay)

Arokia Rajiv (Men’s 4x400m relay)

Muhammed Ajmal (Men’s 4x400m relay)

Naganathan Pandi (Men’s 4x400m relay)

Rajesh Ramesh (Men’s 4x400m relay)

Bhawna Jat (Women’s 10km race walk)

Priyanka Goswami (Women’s 10km race walk)

Hima Das (Women’s 4x100m relay)

Dutee Chand (Women’s 4x100m relay)

Srabani Nanda (Women’s 4x100m relay)

MV Jilna (Women’s 4x100m relay)

NS Simi (Women’s 4x100m relay)

Badminton

July 29: Ashwini Ponnappa (Mixed Doubles)

B Sumeeth Reddy (Mixed Doubles)

August 3: PV Sindhu (Women’s Singles)

Aakarshi Kashyap (Women’s Singles)

Lakshya Sen (Men’s Singles)

Kidambi Srikanth (Men’s Singles)

August 4: Treesa Jolly (Women’s Doubles)

Gayatri Gopichand (Women’s Doubles)

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy (Men’s Doubles)

Chirag Shetty (Men’s Doubles)

#Exclusive

Catch glimpses from @Pvsindhu1's training session at @birminghamcg22 village ahead of #CWG2022

Any messages for our Champ share below with #Cheer4India #IndiaTaiyaarHai#India4CWG2022 @PMOIndia @ianuragthakur @NisithPramanik @BAI_Media @CGI_Bghm pic.twitter.com/CDufenWUZs — SAI Media (@Media_SAI) July 27, 2022

Boxing

July 30: Amit Panghal (Men’s 51kg)

Mohammad Hussamuddin (Men’s 57kg)

Shiva Thapa (Men’s 63.5kg)

Rohit Tokas (Men’s 67kg)

Sumit Kundu (Men’s 75kg)

Ashish Chaudhary (Men’s 80kg)

Sanjeet (Men’s 92kg)

Sagar (Men’s 92+kg)

Nitu (Women’s 48kg)

Nikhat Zareen (Women’s 50kg)

Jasmine (Women’s 60kg)

Lovlina Borgohain (Women’s 70kg)

Cricket

July 29: India vs Australia

July 31: India vs Pakistan

August 3: India vs Barbados

Hockey

Men’s

July 31: India vs Ghana

August 1: India vs England

August 3: India vs Canada

August 4: India vs Wales

Women’s

July 29: India vs Ghana

July 30: India vs Wales

August 2: India vs England

August 3: India vs Canada

Indian athletes got a resounding welcome from Indian sports fans in Birmingham

A special programme was organised by the Indian High Commission in Birmingham to cheer for the athletes#India4CWG2022@birminghamcg22 pic.twitter.com/F75eXRMCKz — SAI Media (@Media_SAI) July 27, 2022

Table Tennis

Men’s Team

July 29: Round 1 & Round 2

July 30: Round 3

July 31: Quarterfinals

August 1: Semifinals

August 2: Finals

Women’s Team events Schedule

July 29: Round 1 & Round 2

July 30: Round 3

July 30: Quarterfinals

July 31: Semifinals

August 1: Finals

Weightlifting

July 30: Mirabai Chanu (Women’s 55kg)

Sanket Mahadev (Men’s 55kg)

Chanambam Rishikanta Singh (Men’s 55kg)

July 31: Bindyarani Devi (Women’s 59kg)

Jeremy Lalrinnunga (Men’s 67kg)

Achinta Sheuli (Men’s 73kg)

August 1: Popy Hazarika (Women’s 64kg)

Ajay Singh (Men’s 81kg)

August 2: Usha Kumara (Women’s 87kg)

Purnima Pandey (Women’s 87+kg)

Vikas Thakur (Men’s 96kg)

Ragala Venkat Rahul (Men’s 96kg)

Wrestling

August 5: Bajrang Punia (Men’s 65kg)

Deepak Punia (Men’s 86kg)

Mohit Grewal (Men’s 125kg)

Anshu Malik (Women’s 57kg)

Sakshi Malik (Women’s 62kg)

Divya Kakran (Women’s 68kg)

August 6: Ravi Kumar Dahiya (Men’s 57kg)

Naveen (Men’s 74kg)

Deepak (Men’s 97kg)

Pooja Gehlot (Women’s 50kg)

Vinesh Phogat (Women’s 53kg)

Pooja Sihag (Women’s 76kg)