2018: Peerless Mary Kom and a clutch of wonder girls give India reasons to cheer

Boxer MC Mary Kom, shuttler PV Sindhu, javelin-thrower Neeraj Chopra, sprinter Hima Das, and gymnast Dipa Karmakar along with various other players made sure that 2018 was not only about the men in blue but also about women stars in other sports.

The year that saw three major sporting events - Commonwealth Games, Gold Coast 2018, Asian Games, Jakarta 2018 and PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games - gave us many medals and new sporting heroes.

Following are some epic sports moments from these events to remind us of the year that was:

MC Mary Kom: Getting India to finally care

This November 36-year-old MC Mary Kom won her sixth gold at the World Women’s Boxing Championship.

No woman has more World Championship gold medals than her. In fact, no man has either - she is tied at six with legendary Cuban heavyweight Felix Savon.

Vishu Prasad, from our sports team who wrote the above lines, summed up her achievement, noting that "The woman who did not merit a mention in the snippets on sports pages in 2002 (when she won her first gold as a 19 year old) is now dominating headlines on the front page. Forget her multiple world titles, her Olympic bronze or the fact that she managed to actually get a top Bollywood actress to don ridiculous prosthetics to look like her. Mary Kom’s biggest achievement has to be that, through sheer will and crunching punches, she got a hopelessly apathetic country to care."

A Commonwealth Games with many ‘firsts’ for India

It was a notable Games for India, who clinched 26 gold medals. The shooters were on the mark winning 16 medals - seven of them gold. But it was table tennis star Manika Batra who truly stole the thunder.

 

Batra made history by winning gold in ping pong - a much-ignored sport. She also became the first Indian to win the Breakthrough Star award at the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) awards in Incheon for her performance.

Neeraj Chopra set a national record by becoming the first-ever Indian to win gold in javelin throw in Asian Games 2018 and repeated his feat by winning gold again in Commonwealth Games.

Freestyle wrestler Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik put up a great show too by winning gold and bronze respectively.

'Dhing Express' sprints to glory at Asian Games

Sprinter Hima Das won gold in 400 meters at the Asian Games with a timing of 50.79 seconds.

The Assam girl hails from a humble farming family.

She became just the second sprinter from the state to win gold at the Asiad with her win coming 52 years after Bhogeswar Baruah clinched a famous win in the 800 metres at the 1966 Bangkok Asian Games.

'Wonder girl' Swapna Barman captures India's imagination

Before Swapna Barman won gold in heptathlon in the Asian games, many of us did not even know about this sport.

The combined sport features seven events - the 100-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, and 200-metre run on the first day; and the running long jump, javelin throw, and 800-metre run on the second day.

The Games also saw Indian women's hockey team clinch silver, a performance better than that of their men counterparts.

Bending it better than Beckham

At the gymnastics World Cup challenge in July, Dipa Karmakar bagged gold and became the first ever Indian to do so.

The gymnast was widely appreciated when she attempted Prudonova (a very difficult task in gymnast) at the Commonwealth Games 2014. 

Karmakar was a Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award - in 2016.

Ending the year with a bang

Star shuttler PV Sindhu made India proud by winning the BWF World Tour Finals beating Japanese player Nozomi Okuhara.

Sindhu became the first Indian to clinch the World Tour Final title. 

"I feel really happy and I think I have no words because this is my first win in this year and every time I have been coming to the final and losing. This will be the most memorable this year because I think it was a good game and I’m really very proud. I think the year has ended on a beautiful note," she said after her victory.