Olympic Bronze Medallist Boxer Vijender Singh had the honour of bringing the Queen’s baton into the stadium and with other medal winners Mary Kom and Samresh Jung having the privilege to run with the baton in the presence of the 60,000 strong crowd. The final honours went to wrestler Sushil Kumar, who handed the baton to Prince Charles to read the Queen’s message that travelled across the globe for 365 days before finally arriving in Delhi.

 

Olympic Gold Medallist Abhinav Bindra lead the Indian contingent into the stadium and read out the oath. As the athletes settled down, India unveiled its cultural identity to the world. Singer Hariharan welcomed the distinguished guests by singing the Swagatam song as thousand students from Delhi schools formed a namaste sign. The finale was reserved for Oscar award winner A R Rahman who belted the theme song and the climax was reserved for Jai Ho.  

 

One of the biggest attractions of the evening was the Rs 70 crore aerostat that is said to be the world’s largest helium ballon with a size of 40mx80mx12m. The floating 360 degree screen was instrumental in making the show a grand event.

 

In the event that would go on till October 14, nearly 7,000 athletes from 71 countries would be contesting in 17 disciplines in 260 events at six venue clusters. India has a strong representation of 409 players and all eyes are on Saina Nehwal, Chetan Anad, V Diju-Jwala Gutta in Badminton; Vijender Singh, Akhil Kumar in Boxing; K Ravi Kumar, Sonia Chanu, Renu Bala, Monika Devi in Weightlifting; Leander Paes-Mahesh Bhupathi, Sania Mirza, Somdev Devvarman, Rohan Bopanna in Tennis; Abhinav Bindra, Manavjit Singh Sandhu, Ronjon Sodhi, Samresh Jung, Gagan Narang, Tejaswani Sawant, Asher Noria in Shooting; R Maheshwary, Tintu Luka, Mayookha Johny, K Poonia, Seema Antil in Athletics; Sharath Kamal in Table Tennis; Dola Bannerjee, Deepika Kumari in Archery; Virdhawal Khade, Sandeep Sejwal in Swimming; Sourabh Ghosal, Deepika Pallika, Joshna Chinappa in Squash and Sushil Kumar in Wrestling.

 

India is hosting an event of this magnitude after successfully hosting the Ninth Asiad games in Delhi in 1982. It is said that at that time Indian homes saw the birth of colour television, while the CWG has seen the advent of high definition television.

  

Recently, 27-year-old Sushil Kumar created history by winning the Gold Medal in the World Wrestling Championship in Moscow after he defeated Russian wrestler Gogaev Alan 3-1 in the finals. In the run up to the final, the Haryana grappler defeated Azerbaijan's Hasanov Jabrayil in the semi-final of the free style 66kg category event. In the first round, he was given a bye and defeated Akritidis of Greece, Martin Sebastian of Germany and Buyan Jav of Mongolia to reach the final.

 

In 2008, at the Beijing Olympics, Sushil won a Bronze Medal and became the second Indian to do so. K D Jadhav won the Bronze Medal at the 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games

 

Coming from a humble background, Sushil’s father, Diwan Singh Solanki, a bus driver in MTNL, and also a wrestler motivated him to take up wrestling, which was seconded by his cousin Sandeep. Sushil’s mother manages the house. Hailing from village Baprola, near Delhi, Sushil at the age of 14 joined an akhada in Chhatrasal Stadium, Delhi, for training. Despite the poor funds for other sporting events, Sushil Kumar was pinned to his dream of becoming a wrestler with the unstinted support of his immediate family members.

 

Indian wrestlers Yashvir and Rampal trained the young Sushil Kumar till Arjuna Award winner Satpal Singh and Coach Gyan Singh took him under their wings. The first major success to come his way was the State Wrestling Championship. He wore the Indian colours in 1998, when he took part in the World Cadet Wrestling Championship and won the Gold Medal. In 2000, Sushil bagged another Gold Medal when he took part in the Asian Junior Wrestling Championship.

 

Soon officials took note of the young talent and in 2003, gave him the green signal to represent the country in the Men’s Asian Wrestling Championship where he bagged the Bronze Medal. In the same year, he scripted another success by winning Gold Medal in the Commonwealth Games.

 

In 2004, at Athens, in the World Wrestling Championship, Sushil disappointed when he secured the 14th position. However, the following year, he bounced back and has been having ups and downs in career. Before flying off to Beijing Olympics, in 2008, where he won the Bronze Medal, Sushil wrested the Bronze at the Asian Wrestling Championship. In 2006, the grappler was awarded the Arjuna award for his achievements by the Government of India.

 

Arriving at Delhi after the success in Moscow, Sushil Kumar said that coach Satpal Singh was behind his success. He said that his prime focus was the Commonwealth Games and was confident of doing well.

 

Without wasting a minute, Sushil rushed to Sonepat to attend the training camp for the Commonwealth Games. He is a sure bet for gold in his category. It may be noted that the country has always done well at the CWG though nations like Canada and Nigeria have posed some challenge. The country is hopeful of medals in all 21 categories (men's freestyle and Greco-Roman and women's freestyle) even though a few gold contenders have been barred after involvement of doping came to light.

 

After winning the Gold Medal at Moscow, Sushil’s employers Indian Railways have given him an out-of-turn promotion as Assistant Commercial Manager and cash prize of Rs 10 lakh, Sports Authority of India too awarded Rs 10 lakhs, while the Delhi government awarded Rs 15 lakh.

 

It is a credit to Olympic Bronze Medallist and World Championship gold-medallist that after his success, his coach Yashvir Singh became the first Indian to win the International Wrestling Federation's 'Coach of the Year' award. Yashvir had travelled with Sushil to Moscow.

 

In a statement, Wrestling Federation of India President G S Mander said that the International Federation Associated Wrestling Style (FILA) in consultation with Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) selected Yashvir Singh, coach of world champion Sushil Kumar, as the FILA Coach of the year 2010. The coach would be presented the award at Murcia (Spain) on December 12 during the Free Style 2010 Advanced School of Coaches.

 

Date of birth: May 26, 1983

Place of birth: New Delhi

Height: 1.66 m (5 ft 5 in)

Category: Freestyle Wrestling (66 kg)

World Championship: Gold (Moscow 2010)

Olympics: Bronze (Beijing 2008), 14th (Athens 2004)

Commonwealth C'ship: Gold (London 2007, Cape Town 2005, London 2003)

Asian C'ship: Bronze (Jeju Island 2008, New Delhi 2003)

Awards: Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna (2009) and Arjuna Award (2006)

 

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Hyderabad will be hosting the second Test match between India and New Zealand at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium from November 12 to 16. The test would be held in Hyderabad after a gap of 22 years.

 

An announcement to this effect was made by BCCI President Sashank Manohar after the annual general meeting of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in Mumbai.

 

Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) secretary D. S. Chalapathi said that when they were given the option to prefer a Test to a one-dayer, they opted for the Test since the BCCI policy says that no centre can host both the Test and the one-dayer. Earlier, Hyderabad was allotted the third one-dayer on December 4.

 

Former off spinner Shivlal Yadav said that it was a great day for Hyderabad cricket. “Yes, we are going to unveil grand plans to celebrate the return of Hyderabad to Test fold as all the big-wigs of BCCI will be special invitees. We are going to finalise all the details within a few days in this regard,” he said.