New Delhi: India‘s chances of winning a medal at the Commonwealth Games have been dealt a blow as host city Glasgow has removed major sports like hockey, badminton, wrestling, cricket and shooting from the 2026 Games program and has included only 10 sports in it. Has been. Table tennis, squash and triathlon have also been dropped to limit costs. Nine sports included in the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham will not be part of the next Games. These games will be held at only four venues.
Commonwealth Games will be played from 23rd July
The Commonwealth Games will be held from July 23 to August 2 in 2026. Glasgow previously hosted the Commonwealth Games in 2014. The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) said in a statement, ‘The sports program includes athletics and para athletics (track and field), swimming and para swimming, artistic gymnastics, track cycling and para track cycling, netball, weightlifting and para powerlifting, boxing, judo. , bowls and para bowls, 3×3 basketball and 3×3 wheelchair basketball.’
A blow to the Indian team
According to the statement, ‘These games will be organized at four venues – Scotstown Stadium, Tollcross International Swimming Centre, Emirates Arena and Scottish Competition Complex (SEC). The players and their support staff will be accommodated in the hotel. This Commonwealth Games event is a big blow to India’s medal prospects, as before this they had won most of the medals in the sports which have been removed. Shooting was also dropped from the Birmingham Games program and there was little hope of its return.
Why were so many games removed at once?
Shooting has been left out of the program because in 2014 the sport was held at the Barry Buddon Center in Dundee, more than 100 km from Glasgow. Along with this, archery has also been ignored. The sport was last part of the Commonwealth Games in 2010 in Delhi. Glasgow Green and the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre, which hosted hockey and wrestling at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, have been removed from the list of venues, while the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, which hosted the badminton event that year, has been removed from the list this time only. Will host cycling.
India had dominance in shooting, hockey and wrestling
The reason for hockey’s exclusion may also be that the Hockey World Cup will be held in Wavre, Belgium and Amstelveen, Netherlands from August 15 to 30, two weeks after these games end. Earlier these games were to be held in the Australian state of Victoria, but due to the increasing costs, it was withdrawn from hosting. After this Scotland agreed to host the games. Hockey’s exclusion from the Games will be a big blow to India. India’s men’s team has won three silver and two bronze medals, while the women have won three medals, including a historic gold at the 2002 Games.
India has won 10 gold in badmintonIn the history of badminton at the Commonwealth Games, India has won a total of 31 medals including 10 gold, eight silver and 13 bronze medals. In shooting, India had won 135 medals which included 63 gold, 44 silver and 28 bronze. The country has won 114 medals in the wrestling competition, which include 49 gold, 39 silver and 26 bronze. Cricket was again included in the Commonwealth Games in 2022 in which the Indian women’s team won the silver medal. Para athletes have been a part of these games since 2002 and will continue to be in the next games as well.