Having finished fourth in the last two editions, this is India's golden opportunity to finish in the Top 3

CWG: Golden opportunity for India to finish in the Top 3

Having finished fourth in the last two editions, this is India's golden opportunity to finish in the Top 3

And the question doing the rounds is not whether India will be able to better their medals tally here in comparison to Manchester (2002) and Melbourne (2006)u00a0-- it's almost a given that they willu00a0-- but rather if they will be able to better their fourth place showing at both the 2002 and 2006 editions of the CWG.

u00a0In both Manchester and Melbourne, India finished fourth in the medals tally, behind Australia, England and Canada. In Manchester, India won 69 medals while Australia won 207, England 166 and Canada 118.

u00a0Shooting: Abhinav Bindra, Weightlifting: L Monica Devi and Wrestling: Sushil Kumar

Four years later, India bagged 49 medals while Australia clinched 221, England 110 and Canada 87. The last number in that list is what India should be looking to beatu00a0-- by a reasonable margin of course, keeping in mind that Canada too will have improved over the last four years.

Ask most of the Indian athletes and officials and they are confident India's medals tally will swell significantly. And who else but the world champion gun men and women to shoot India to the top. Shooting was India's most successful discipline at Melbourne where the marksmen returned with 26 medals (16 gold).

A lot has happened in Indian shooting since 2006u00a0-- Abhinav Bindra's Olympic gold in 2008 and more recently the gold medals won by Manavjit Sandhu in the trap event at the Shot Gun World Cup in Mexico, Tejaswini Sawant in the 50m rifle prone at the World Championships in Munich and Ronjon Sodhi's double trap gold at the World Cup in Milan. It's no wonder then that national shooting coach Sunny Thomas is certain that his gunners will hit bullseye.

"I can't put a number to our overall medals (in shooting) but yes, we should definitely top our Melbourne tally by a significant margin. Almost all our shooters have been doing consistently well at international events in the run-up to the CWG. So there is no reason why they will not do well in New Delhi," said Thomas.

India's dope tainted history in weightlifting notwithstanding, it's another discipline where the country could bag a lot of medals. In 2002 India's weightlifters picked up 27 medals including 11 gold but sadly could not do too well in 2006, bringing home just nine medals (three gold).

Lifters confident
This time around though, the strongmen are confident of at least doubling, if not more, the gold tally of 2006. "We are sure to win over 10 medals in New Delhi. I cannot say that all will be gold, but we should have at least five to six golds among these," said national weightlifting coach Harnam Singh.

Wrestling, having been brought back into the Games after being excluded from the 2006 Melbourne edition, is another avenue where India can shine bright by bagging medals in double figures. Spearheaded by Beijing bronze medallist Sushil Kumar, the grapplers are eyeing over a dozen gold medals.

Monica Devi is a medal prospect in the 75kg category. Champion grappler Yogeshwar Dutt, who along with Sushil headed back from the Games Village here to train with his bunch of trusted lieutenants in his hometown of Sonepat, Haryana said 20 medals is the target.

"Traditionally India has been a powerhouse in wrestling and egged on by a vociferous home crowd, which we expect in New Delhi. I think 20 to 21 medals should not be difficult," said Dutt.u00a0 Boxing is another major event where India could finish in double figures in the medals.

The Indian Boxing Federation however predicts a conservative number. "We should definitely be able to win at least seven medals this time compared to the five last time. Of course I'm hopeful it could be more than seven too," said PK Muralidharan Raja, secretary general of the Indian Boxing Federation.

Beijing Olympics bronze medallist Vijender Singh, however, packs a punch in his prediction. "All of our 10 boxers at the CWG are sure shot medal prospects," he said.

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