Best of Bharat People: Important milestones in the Indian sports

New Delhi, Aug 13: Sports has never been a career option in India for decades since its independence in 1947, but it did not stop our sportsmen from winning medals for the country.

With or without the support of the government, the nation has managed to make its presence felt in many sports. As the country is celebrating its Azadi Ka Amrut Mahotsav to commemorate the 75 years of independence, it is time for us to revisit some of the important milestones in Indian sports.

Golden period of Football
The period from 1951 to 1962 is considered the golden era in Indian football. Under the tutelage of Syed Abdul Rahim India became the best team in Asia. The Indian team started the 1950s with victory in the 1951 Asian Games which they hosted. In 1952, India continued their form by winning the Colombo Quadrangular Cup held in Sri Lanka. This is called as the Golden time of Indian football. As four years earlier, many of the team played without boots but after the result in the Olympics AIFF immediately made it mandatory to wear boots.

India also won three further editions of the Quadrangular Cup, which were held in Burma, Calcutta and Dhaka in 1953, 1954 and 1955 respectively. India then went on to finish eighth in the 1954 Asian Games held in Manila.

At the 1956 Olympics they finished fourth, this is the second time India made history in the world of football.

India's 1st Medal in Olympics
In the 1952 Summer Olympics wrestler KD Jadhav won the first individual medal for independent India. After Norman Pritchard who won two silver medals in athletics in 1900 under colonial India, Khashaba was the first individual athlete from independent India to win a medal at the Olympics.

India won the World Cup in 1975 beating Pakistan 2-1 in the final with Ashok Kumar, the son of wizard Dhyan Chand, scoring the winning goal. India, of course, had reached the final in 1973 but lost to the Netherlands and finished third in 1971.

Major Milestone in Badminton
Prakash Padukone was ranked World No. 1 in 1980 and the same year he became the first Indian to win the All England Open Badminton Championships.

Asian Games and Golf
Golfer Lakshman Singh won the individual gold medal for India at 1982 Asian Games. This sport started getting popular in India thereafter. India hosted the Asian Games on two occasions: the inaugural 1951 Asian Games and the 1982 Asian Games.

In 1982, the event witnessed record turnout and India ended up winning 13 gold, 19 silver, and 25 bronze in an overall total of 57 medals.

Turning Point in Cricket
1983 was the turning point for Indian cricket as Kapil Dev-led team did unthinkable by winning the 1983 World Cup by defeating mighty West Indies team. India won the T20 World Cup in 2007 and 50-over World Cup in 2011 under Mahendra Singh Dhoni's leadership.

In addition to the above mentioned milestones, there have been many individual milestones.

• Milka Singh won gold medals in the 1958 and 1962 Asian Games.
• Karnam Malleshwari won a bronze medal in weightlifting in 2000.
• Pullela Gopichand won all England Championship series in 2001.
• Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore's silver medal at Athens Olympics in 2004.
• Abhinav Bindra became the first Individual gold medallist Form India in 2008.
• Dipa Karmakar Finished 4th in Gymnastic solo event at Rio Olympics in 2016.
• PV Sindhu became world Champion and a double Olympic medallist 2019, 2016 and 2020 Olympics.
• Sakshi Malik won bronze medal in the 58 kg category in 2016 Olympics, thereby becoming the first woman wrestler to achieve this feat.
• Saurabh Chaudhary Smashed Asian Games Record in 2018.
• Neeraj Chopra won India's First Track and Field Gold in Javelin Throw at the Tokyo Olympics in 2018.