The XXI Commonwealth Games was an aberration for India in the sense that the hockey players, both men and women, returned empty handed after having promised so much. With the spotlight away from them, the focus shifted to the likes of paddler Manika Batra from Delhi, javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra from Haryana and weightlifter Mirabai Chanu, who all led from the front to ensure that India’s national anthem was played 26 times, across seven venues, from the Belmont Shooting range in Brisbane to the Oxenford studios which hosted table tennis, squash and boxing.

Manika Batra arrived in Delhi after winning a Gold medal in Women's singles Table Tennis event at Commonwealth Games2018. She said, 'I am really happy with my performance & i always wanted to win a gold medal'.

Wrestler Sushil Kumar & Sumit Malik meet Baba Ramdev in nation capital. Both the wrestlers won Gold medals respectively at Commonwealth Games 2018.

Below top standards in many disciplines, the Commonwealth Games is not the best yardstick to judge standing at the world level. The participation of around 70 teams makes it the biggest multi-sport event after the Olympics, but barring athletics, swimming, cycling, hockey and a few others, competition in several arenas is not as tough as even the Asian Games. Despite that, India’s performance in Gold Coast is creditable broadly because of two reasons. Pushing gold medals up from 15 in 2014 to 26 and finishing third ahead of countries like New Zealand, Canada, South Africa is one. And the emergence of a bunch of youngsters is the more significant other.