India sign off from CWG 2026 with 39 medals as boxers and para stars script a Games to remember

India finish CWG 2026 with 39 medals as boxing, para sports, judo and athletics script historic firsts, proving quality outweighed quantity in Glasgow.

Assured of 10 medals heading into the finals, the Indian contingent converted seven into gold and three into silver (PTI)

India closed the curtain on the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow with 39 medals — 13 gold, 17 silver and nine bronze. It was short of the symbolic 50-medal mark the country had maintained at every Commonwealth Games since 2002, but this was never going to be a tournament judged purely by numbers.

With several medal-rich sports absent from the programme, owing to financial constraints in hosting the Games, whose rights were initially reserved by the state of Victoria in Australia before moving to Glasgow, expectations were naturally tempered. But the nation found new heroes, new disciplines and new reasons to celebrate. The contingent may not have managed to add to their tally on the final day, but the campaign in the port city in Scotland ended on a memorable note, one headlined by a historic boxing sweep, an unprecedented para-sports performance and Indian judo’s greatest-ever Commonwealth Games showing.

Weightlifting got the campaign underway for India, delivering eight medals — one gold, six silver and one bronze. Mirabai Chanu once again proved why she remains India’s undisputed queen of weightlifting, as she scripted history with a third successive CWG gold.

Then came boxing. If the Gold Coast Games in 2018 had represented India’s finest moment in the ring with seven medals, Glasgow completely rewrote the record books. Assured of 10 medals heading into the finals, the Indian contingent converted seven into gold and three into silver, producing the greatest boxing campaign by any nation in Commonwealth Games history. The women led the revolution, claiming five gold medals, while Sachin Siwach and Ankush Panghal completed the men’s triumph.

It wasn’t just India’s best-ever boxing performance, it became the benchmark for every country in Commonwealth Games history.

Yet even boxing wasn’t the only sport breaking barriers. Quietly flowing under the radar, India’s para athletes scripted perhaps the most remarkable story of the Games. The 28-member contingent returned with seven medals, three gold, two silver and two bronze, matching India’s combined para-sports medal tally from every previous Commonwealth Games edition, while comfortably surpassing it in quality. That tally included three double podium finishes in para athletics, where Sharmila, Dilip Mahadu Gavit and Soman Rana struck gold.

Judo, too, reached unprecedented heights. Harsh Singh and Asmita Dey became India’s first-ever Commonwealth Games judo gold medallists, while Yamini Mourya added silver and Unnati Sharma clinched bronze, ensuring India’s best-ever medal haul in judo.

Athletics contributed the remaining 10 medals to India’s tally, five silver and five bronze, while producing several landmark achievements. Tejaswin Shankar scripted history by becoming the first Indian to win a Commonwealth Games decathlon medal, claiming bronze. Gulveer Singh, meanwhile, emerged as one of India’s standout performers, becoming the first Indian athlete to win two athletics medals at a single Commonwealth Games with silver in the men’s 10,000m and bronze in the 5,000m. Olympic hero Neeraj Chopra also returned to the Commonwealth Games podium, adding a silver in the men’s javelin after winning gold at Gold Coast 2018 and missing Birmingham 2022 through injury.

Source : https://www.hindustantimes.com/sports/others/india-sign-off-from-cwg-2026-with-39-medals-as-boxers-and-para-stars-script-a-games-to-remember-101785681423546.html

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