World Athletics Championship / 100 hours, 3 sports and 3 big achievements, a glimpse of rising India

World Athletics Championship: Every city has its own unique morning. Even though the sun of everyone's share is the same, but the style of the morning changes. The morning of Banaras is different from the morning of Bangalore, the morning of Pathankot is different from the morning of Pune. But on the morning of 28 August, one thing was 'common' in every city of India. Neeraj Chopra's victory was discussed in every city. Was happy. Neeraj Chopra had become the first Indian to win a gold medal in the World Championship. This news was from last night, but it came very late, so it was publicized in the morning with the rays of the sun. This happiness tripled because just a few hours before this, Pragyananand was the runner-up in the final of the Chess World Cup 2023. And a few hours before that, HS Prannoy won the bronze medal in the Badminton World Championship.

Badminton, Javelin Throw and Chess are not the sports in which India has ever been a superpower. When Vishwanathan Anand came, sports lovers started following Chase. When Saina Nehwal won the bronze medal in the London Olympics in 2012, the popularity of badminton went to a different level. When Neeraj won gold in the Tokyo Olympics, India made a grand entry in the track and field event. This is India's message to the world that now it should not be considered weak in the world of sports.

100 hours, 3 games and 3 big achievements

First of all talk about Neeraj Chopra. Neeraj Chopra has become the golden arm of India. He threw 88.17 meters in Budapest. This throw got him the gold medal. It is proud to think that he is only the second player in the world to win gold medal in Olympics and World Championship. Last time Neeraj had missed the World Championship final. He had to be satisfied with the silver medal. This time he filled that gap. Now let's talk about Pragyananand. Magnus Carlsen was the number one player in the world in front of 18-year-old Praggnanandha. But Pragyananand gave him a tough fight. He is the only other player from India who reached the finals. Earlier this feat was done by Vishwanathan Anand. Pragyananand, who stopped Carlsen on par on the first two days, had to face defeat in the tie-breaker round on the third day.

It is surprising that the child who was asked to play chess to stop watching cartoons on TV, surprised the whole world. Now know the exploits of HS Pranay as well. The World Badminton Championship was going on in Copenhagen. HS Prannoy had to face defeat from Thailand player in the semi-finals. But he had captured the bronze medal. He is only the fifth male player from India to achieve this feat. This achievement is also very special because in this sequence he also defeated Olympic Gold Medalist and defending champion Viktor Axelsen.

The picture has changed rapidly in 20 years

Remember the 2004 Athens Olympics? Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore won the silver medal in double trap shooting. This was India's first Olympic silver medal in the individual event. In the next Olympics, Abhinav Bindra took a step further and won the gold medal. The effect of this was that today India is counted among the strong countries in shooting. In the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Sushil Kumar won the bronze medal in wrestling and Vijender Singh in boxing. There is no need to tell anyone the popularity of these two games today. In the 2012 London Olympics, Saina Nehwal brought the bronze medal, while PV Sindhu did wonders in the next two Olympics. In all these games, India was performing well at the Olympic level but the medal took its popularity to a new height.

There were also players like Dipa Karmakar in gymnastics and Aditi Ashok in golf, who missed the Olympic medal by a very narrow margin but the sport got a lot. This picture has changed in the last two decades. Now the market is also looking at sports other than cricket more openly than before. Only cricketers are not seen in the advertisement. In sports like shooting, wrestling, badminton, boxing, India remains a strong contender in the Olympics. In the track and field event in which our hands were empty, Neeraj made a bang in the Tokyo Olympics. Now the success is the 'extension' of this.

Celebrate if you complain

It's about the 2016 Olympics. Columnist Shobha De had a tweet. He wrote – Team India's goal in Olympics – go to Rio, take selfie, come back empty handed, waste of money and opportunity. There was a big ruckus on this tweet. Virender Sehwag wrote – This thing does not suit you. Now just ask your heart how many of us go to the stadium to watch the matches. Legendary players like Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu leave after playing in front of a handful of spectators at Delhi's Siri Fort. There are many people who wake up in the morning and send their children to play in the park. We complain that why there are so few Olympic medals in a population of 125 crores, but we do not find the reason for it.

Talking about the capital Delhi itself, almost every other month some or the other such big sporting event is going on in which big players come but the stadium remains empty. The Formula One race which is held in selected countries of the world, goes away from India after a few seasons. The simple thing is that now the government's attitude towards sports has changed, people in villages and rural areas have understood the importance of sports, players are no longer forced to sell medals for survival, times have changed. You also change, celebrate these achievements.