With a tally of six medals, India puts up its greatest show in the Games

OLYMPICS\\ India put up a strong show in the London Summer Olympics 2012 which proved to be the country’s best performance till date—as players from the country garnered a total of six medals, including two Silvers and four Bronzes. Gagan Narang won the first medal for the country by winning a Bronze in the 10-metre air-rifle shooting event. Vijay Kumar won a Silver in the men’s 25-metre rapid-fire pistol event, and became the third man representing India to win an individual Silver, after Norman Pritchard and Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore. Saina Nehwal won a Bronze in women’s singles in badminton. She is the first Indian to win a medal in Badminton at the Olympics. She is also the second Indian woman to win an individual medal after Karnam Malleswari’s Bronze in weightlifting in 2000. Mary Kom won India its fourth medal at the Games by winning a Bronze in the women’s flyweight category in boxing. She is the third Indian woman to win a medal at the Olympics. By winning a Bronze in the 60-kg freestyle wrestling event, Yogeshwar Dutt won India the fourth Bronze and the fifth medal. This is the third individual medal in wrestling after Bronze medals by Sushil Kumar in 2008 and K.D. Jadhav in 1952. The sixth medal was bagged by Sushil Kumar who won the Silver in 66-kg freestyle wrestling. Sushil Kumar is the first Indian to win an individual medal, back-to-back, in the Olympic Games. He had won a Bronze in the 2008 Beijing Olympics in the same category. With this India finished 55th on the medal tally, climbing 10 rungs from its count at the Beijing Olympics. The success of Haryana’s wrestlers (the state had sent 18 players in the 81-players contingent), led to its chief minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, fix a target of winning 12 medals for the country in 2016 Olympics. Hooda felicitated the four Olympic medal winners from Haryana at his New Delhi residence and promised to help the state’s players and athletes to the best of his ability. Saina Nehwal who broke the Chinese monopoly over badminton medals missed her chance to play the finals as she lost to World No. 1 seed, Yihan Wang of China. Nehwal lost 21–13, 21–13, and the Beijing Olympics disappointment loomed large over the Hyderabadi girl. Nehwal, however, grabbed the Bronze as she faced World No. 2, Xin Wang (China). A knee injury fouled Wang’s game even though she was leading. Mary Kom, a respected name in the world of women’s boxing and a five-time world champion, won the Bronze by beating Maroua Rahali of Tunisia for 15-6. The mother of two lost the Gold to winner Nicola Adams (11-6) in the semi-finals, but grabbed the historic Bronze. The 2012 Olympics saw around 85 countries win medals. The United States of America went on to take the highest number of medals home.