India’s Top 10 Sporting Moments – 2019

2019 has been an outstanding year for Sports. It has been an equally outstanding year for Indian sports in particular. We witnessed many spectacular individual and team performances by Indian athletes through the year.

Here is my attempt at listing India’s top 10 sporting moments of 2019. This is in no particular order. Further, this is purely based on my individual judgement.

#1: India’s first cricket test series win in Australia

The year started with a bang. It took 71 years for Indian cricket team to register a series win in Australia. Virat Kohli led India to win the 4 test series 2-1 after scintillating performances from the likes of Pujara, Bumrah, Shami and Ishant.

Indeed, a watershed moment for Indian cricket and deserves to be right up on the list.

#2: PV Sindhu’s Badminton World Championship Gold medal

In Aug 2019, PV Sindhu defeated her Japanese competitor Nozomi Okuhara to become the first player to win badminton world championship. It was a historic moment for Indian badminton and had India’s PM Narendra Modi tweet in excitement, “PV Sindhu’s success will inspire generations of players.”

Sindhu had come agonizingly close to this outstanding achievement with a few silver and bronze in previous editions. It was long overdue and I am glad it finally happened in 2019.

#3: Sunil Chhetri overtaking Lionel Messi to become 2nd most active international goal scorer in the world

India’s football superstar, Sunil Chhetri, scored his 69th international goal against Tajikistan in the Intercontinental Cup to surpass Messi in the list of active international goal scorers and rank 2nd just behind another football legend Cristiano Ronaldo.

While India’s doesn’t have much silverware to showcase as a team, to have an Indian rank so high in the list of international goal scorers is nothing short of spectacular. Further, Chhetri’s strike rate is better than both Ronaldo and Messi!

#4 Hima Das’ 5 gold medals in 19 days

Indian sprinter Hima Das continued her golden run and laced an outstanding hot streak of 5 gold medals in a span of just 19 days in international events.

This is how her 5 medal winning streak rolled:

• July 2, Poznan: 200m gold (23.65 seconds)
• July 7, Kunto: 200m gold (23.97 seconds)
• July 13, Kladno: 200m gold (23.43 seconds)
• July 17, Tabor: 200m gold (23.25 seconds)
• July 20, Prague: 400m gold (52.09 seconds)

Not many athletes have had such a fantastic ‘run’ with gold medals and we hope to see more medals from Das in the coming years.

#5 Indian Men’s Table Tennis team at the highest ever position in ITTF rankings

In Nov 2019, India’s Men’s TT team broke into top 10 rankings for the first time ever. Indian team was placed 9th, its highest ever standing in the international team list.

This was a pivotal moment for Indian table tennis and was only possible on the back of consistent performances from the likes Sharath Kamal & G Sathiyan.

I hope to see this team climb higher up the ladder in the coming years and possibly top the table one fine day!

#6 Satwiksairaj Rankireddy & Chirag Shetty win at Thailand Open

Satwik and Chirag defeated the star Chinese pair of Li Jun Hui and Liu Yu Chen in the Thailan Open final to become to first Indian doubles men’s team to win a BWF 500 series tournament. This was biggest win for the pair and was also a moment of pride for Indian badminton.

The duo qualified as unseeded team at the tournament and after winning the final broke into the BWF top 10 rankings for the first time in their career.

This doubles team has great potential and I am reasonably confident that we will see more such victories in the coming years.

#7 Indian Women’s Hockey team’s qualification for Tokyo 2020

Indian Women’s Hockey team defeated USA on aggregate to seal a berth at the Tokyo Olympics 2020. USA posed serious threats in the second leg and it was only courtesy Rani Rampal’s goal in the 48th minute which helped India’ win on aggregate despite losing the game 4-1.

This was a historic moment because this is the first instance where Indian women’s hockey team has qualified for 2 consecutive Olympics.

Lets wish our team the very best for the the Olympics. Chak De India!

#8 Dutee Chand’s 100mtr gold medal at the Summer University Games

India’s sprinter Dutee Chand ran a 11:32 to clinch the gold medal at the 30th Summer University Games at Naples.

This is the first instance any Indian track and field athlete won a gold medal at an International meet. An incredible feat!

Further, this came in the aftermath of Dutee’s going public with admission of same-sex relationship which drew rampant criticism from people including her own family. A special achievement, indeed, given the context.

I sincerely hope that people now remember Chand for her sporting achievements and encourage her to win many more accolades for India.

#9 Sumit Nagal’s qualification in the US Open main draw and taking a set off Roger Federer

It is rare to see an Indian single tennis player at a grand slam. It is rarer to see an Indian player take a set from Roger Federer.

Sumit Nagal did exactly this and won the heart of every tennis fan in India. In process, he also become the youngest Indian tennis player to play in the US Open main draw.

Sumit came through a few tough qualifying games at the US Open only to see him pitted against Roger Federer in the first round match! And, then he sent the tennis world in a shock wave by winning the first set 6-4. Roger Federer eventually prevailed but not without a spirited fight from Sumit.

I love his game style and look forward to seeing him more often in the grand slams in the coming years.

#10 Khelo India Youth Games 2019

It was heartening to see Khelo India School Games in 2018 register a roaring success. It was even more heartening to see it followed by Khelo Indian Youth Games in Pune in 2019. It was a perfect initiative to awaken the sleeping giant that India is when it comes to sports.

The games saw more than 10,000 participants (twice as compared to the school games) competing for 1312 medals. Further, we witnessed several talented athletes emerge and announce themselves at the national stage.

I advise you to keep a close watch on some of these names – Srihari Natraj (swimming), Bavleen Kaur (gynastics) and Jeremy Lalrinnunga (weightlifting).

I have tried to be as exhaustive as possible in my coverage but I am sure to have missed many equally notable achievements. I do hope that the job of pulling out top 10 sporting moments for the year becomes more difficult year or year.

2019 was a great sporting year for India and I am sure 2020 is only going to get bigger and better.