Biggest Indian sporting moments of 2022

The year 2022 was one to remember for Indian sports fans.

It was after all, a year of many firsts and historic feats by Indian athletes on the world stage – a perfect follow-up to an almost equally impressive 2021 which saw the country’s sports stars shine bright at the Tokyo Olympics.

Here’s a relook at the peaks Indian athletes touched in 2022.

Biggest Indian sporting moments of 2022

Neeraj Chopra stamps his mark on the World Championships and Diamond League

After his gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics last year, keeping that dream run intact in 2022 would have always been a tall ask of Neeraj Chopra. The Indian men’s javelin throw ace, however, rose up to the challenge and how!

Having missed the first half of the 2022 season in order to regain his fitness after a 10-month-long layoff post his Tokyo 2020 campaign, Neeraj Chopra stormed back into the international circuit to win a silver medal and create a national record at the Paavo Nurmi Games.

Things only got better for Chopra. The Olympic champion clinched another silver at the World Athletics Championships 2022 in Oregon, marking India’s best showing at the worlds till date and only the second medal at the athletics world championships since Anju Bobby George’s long jump bronze in 2003 at Paris.

Neeraj Chopra missed the Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham due to an injury, missing out on a title defence. But Chopra made up for the disappointment with a stellar Diamond League campaign.

After finishing second in the Stockholm meet and first in the Lausanne leg, the first-ever Diamond League win by an Indian, Neeraj Chopra made the Diamond League Final in Zurich. A stellar showing at the Swiss city saw him become the first Indian to win a Diamond League trophy.

In between, Neeraj Chopra reset the national record multiple times with his current personal best, a 89.94m throw, coming at the Stockholm Diamond League meet.

A Commonwealth Games of many firsts at Birmingham

With shooting, a sport which has accounted for a majority of India’s medals at the Commonwealth Games till date, scrapped from the itinerary of Birmingham 2022 and star Neeraj Chopra missing out, India’s chances of an impressive haul at the 2022 CWG looked bleak.

Indian athletes, however, took the challenge head on and finished with 61 medals, 22 golds, 16 silvers and 23 bronze. While the weightlifters, wrestlers, boxers, badminton and table tennis players impressed as expected, there were successes from some unexpected quarters as well.

Lawn Bowls, a sport which barely existed in the collective consciousness of Indian sports fans before the event, came into the spotlight with the country’s women’s team winning a gold medal and the men’s team settling for a silver. India had never won medals in the sport before at the Commonwealth Games.

Indian track and field stars also recorded memorable firsts. Murali Sreeshankar won India’s first silver medal in men’s long jump while Eldhose Paul bagged…