The country’s competitors came out with flying colours and helped India finish a historic second in the final pecking order with more than 100 medals as the Commonwealth Games, that had a troubled build-up but proceeded smoothly thereafter, came to a close today. A record medal haul of 38 gold, 27 silver and 36 bronze medals, the best-ever harvest for the country in the Games history, helped India climb to the record-high second position and end the multi-discipline event on a thumping note.
| CWG MEDALS TALLY ON THURSDAY (FINAL DAY) | |||
| Country | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| Australia | 74 | 54 | 48 |
| India | 38 | 27 | 36 |
| England | 37 | 59 | 45 |
| Canada | 26 | 17 | 32 |
| South Africa | 12 | 11 | 10 |
The main haul of these 101 medals came from the shooting range, wrestling mat, boxing ring, archery range and, to everyone’s surprise, the track and field events, to provide the country with a reasonably strong sports foundation on which to build a more powerful edifice on.The country had several highs and a number of sports heroes and heroines in the 12-day sports festival that commenced with a spectacular opening ceremony on October 3.There was the rifle-shooting ace, Gagan Narang, the Hyderabadi, who scooped up four gold medals but could not achieve the feat of overhauling the five-gold hero of the 2006 Melbourne Games - “Goldfinger” Samresh Jung. After the shambolic build-up that included a dirty athletes village, the Commonwealth Games was today given a pat on the back by CGF chief Michael Fennell in his concluding media conference.
