On Thursday, The Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and his junior Minister Kiren Rijiju wish the Indian contingent for the 2018 Commonwealth Games (CWG) during a send-off ceremony organized by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA).

For India, 222 athletes across 15 different disciplines including aquatics, athletics, badminton, basketball, cycling, boxing, gymnastics, hockey, shooting, squash, table tennis and wrestling will take part in this giant tournament. Reddy, who created history recently by becoming the first Indian to win a medal (bronze) at the Gymnastics World Cup. Ashish Kumar is also the first person to win medals for gymnastics for India in the 2010 Commonwealth Games. He won a silver and a bronze. The IOA had appointed a selection committee to pick the six-member team for the CWG and held trials in New Delhi. The Gymnastics Federation of India has been mired in factionalism over the past few years.

Indian men had three gold medalists at the Commonwealth Championship last year which included Satish Sivalingam in 77 kg, Ragala Venkat Rahul in 85 kg and Pardeep Singh in the 105 kg class. Satish won the gold medal at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games with a total lift of 328 kg. Going by the recent form, his closest rivals will be Francois Etoundi of Australia and Abdul Mubin Rahim of Malaysia. Both of them finished way below Satish in the Commonwealth Championship.