India’s biggest sporting moments of 2022: Neeraj Chopra’s diamond show to historic Thomas Cup win

The year 2022 was one to remember for Indian sports fans.

It was after all, a year of many firsts and historic feats by Indian athletes on the world stage - a perfect follow-up to an almost equally impressive 2021 which saw the country’s sports stars shine bright at the Tokyo Olympics.

Here’s a relook at the peaks Indian athletes touched in 2022.

Biggest Indian sporting moments of 2022

Neeraj Chopra stamps his mark on the World Championships and Diamond League

After his gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics last year, keeping that dream run intact in 2022 would have always been a tall ask of Neeraj Chopra. The Indian men’s javelin throw ace, however, rose up to the challenge and how!

Having missed the first half of the 2022 season in order to regain his fitness after a 10-month-long layoff post his Tokyo 2020 campaign, Neeraj Chopra stormed back into the international circuit to win a silver medal and create a national record at the Paavo Nurmi Games.

Things only got better for Chopra. The Olympic champion clinched another silver at the World Athletics Championships 2022 in Oregon, marking India’s best showing at the worlds till date and only the second medal at the athletics world championships since Anju Bobby George’s long jump bronze in 2003 at Paris.

Neeraj Chopra missed the Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham due to an injury, missing out on a title defence. But Chopra made up for the disappointment with a stellar Diamond League campaign.

After finishing second in the Stockholm meet and first in the Lausanne leg, the first-ever Diamond League win by an Indian, Neeraj Chopra made the Diamond League Final in Zurich. A stellar showing at the Swiss city saw him become the first Indian to win a Diamond League trophy.

In between, Neeraj Chopra reset the national record multiple times with his current personal best, a 89.94m throw, coming at the Stockholm Diamond League meet.

A Commonwealth Games of many firsts at Birmingham

With shooting, a sport which has accounted for a majority of India’s medals at the Commonwealth Games till date, scrapped from the itinerary of Birmingham 2022 and star Neeraj Chopra missing out, India’s chances of an impressive haul at the 2022 CWG looked bleak.

Indian athletes, however, took the challenge head on and finished with 61 medals, 22 golds, 16 silvers and 23 bronze. While the weightlifters, wrestlers, boxers, badminton and table tennis players impressed as expected, there were successes from some unexpected quarters as well.

Lawn Bowls, a sport which barely existed in the collective consciousness of Indian sports fans before the event, came into the spotlight with the country’s women’s team winning a gold medal and the men’s team settling for a silver. India had never won medals in the sport before at the Commonwealth Games.

Indian track and field stars also recorded memorable firsts. Murali Sreeshankar won India’s first silver medal in men’s long jump while Eldhose Paul bagged India’s maiden triple jump gold at CWG 2022 after pipping compatriot Abdulla Aboobacker for India’s first-ever 1-2 finish at the Games.

Race walkers Priyanka Goswami and Sandeep Kumar also finished on the podium but the big story of the event came from steeplechaser Avinash Sable, who clocked a national record time to finish with a silver in the men’s 3000m steeplechase, sandwiched between two Kenyans.

Avinash Sable’s feat was a momentous one as it was the first time since the Victoria 1994 Commonwealth Games that the Kenyans failed to sweep the steeplechase medals. 

The Indian hockey teams and women’s cricket teams also bagged medals in Birmingham.

Maiden Thomas Cup badminton win

The Indian men’s badminton team, led by Lakshya Sen, HS Prannoy, Kidambi Srikanth and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy combined to script yet another piece of history for Indian sports at the Thomas Cup 2022 held in Bangkok, Thailand.

Having never won the men’s badminton team world championships in the previous 31 editions, India came into the tournament as the fifth seeds before producing some impeccable badminton throughout the tournament.

The Indian team finished behind Chinese Taipei in their group to qualify for the knockouts. HS Prannoy emerged as the hero in the quarter-finals and semis as he pulled off back-to-back clutch wins under pressure to help India beat Malaysia and Denmark, respectively, by identical 3-2 margins.

Up against Indonesia, the defending champions and the most successful team in the history of the competition with 14 titles, Indian shuttlers produced a clinical display to win the decider 3-0 and clinched their maiden Thomas Cup title.

Nikhat Zareen becomes boxing world champion

Nikhat Zareen’s gold medal at the Commonwealth Games 2022 would have been enough to mark a successful 2022 for the Indian boxer.

However, the Indian pugilist did one better by clinching the world champion title as well.

At the Women's World Boxing Championships 2022 held in Istanbul, Turkey in May, Nikhat Zareen thoroughly outboxed Thailand’s Jutamas Jitpong, a Tokyo Olympian, 5-0 in the final to become only the fifth Indian woman world champion after the legendary MC Mary Kom, Laishram Sarita Devi, Jenny RL and Lekha K. C.

She is also the only one besides Mary Kom to become a world champion abroad.

Indian women’s hockey team wins inaugural Women’s FIH Nations Cup

The Indian women’s team was presented with a surprise opportunity to appear in the FIH Pro League 2021-22 season after New Zealand and Australia withdrew due to COVID-19 and the Indian eves relished their opportunity to rub shoulders against the world’s best in the competition.

In their debut campaign, India put off a commendable showing, giving big guns like Argentina a tough time, and finished a commendable third.

However, with Australia and New Zealand returning, India dropped out of the 2022-23 edition of the FIH Pro League.

Indian players, time and again, reiterated their wish to get back into the FIH Pro League fold and an opportunity presented itself with the FIH announcing the Nations Cup competitions for men and women. The winners of each would be awarded with a promotion to the FIH Pro League for 2023-24 season.

Savita Punia and Co. entered the eight-team tournament scheduled in December with a purpose and won all three of their group matches to make the semis, where they saw off a stiff challenge from Ireland via shootout. The final against Spain turned out to be a high-intensity affair which ended 1-0 in favour of the Indians.

Rifle shooter Rudrankksh Patil becoming a world champion, Antim Panghal becoming India’s first-ever Under-20 women’s wrestling world champion, boxing prodigy Nitu Ghanghas’ emergence at the Commonwealth Games, the Indian men’s football team qualifying for the 2023 AFC Asian Cup and the Indian mixed 4x400 relay team setting a junior Asian record en route to a silver medal at the Under-20 world championships are some of the other highlight Indian sports moments of 2022.