Badminton, Table Tennis, Athletics, Cricket, Weightlifting, Boxing and Wrestling were some of the sports that India expected a medal in. However, most of India hadn’t even heard of the sport Lawn Bowls, let alone knowing its basic and expecting a medal in it, that too a gold. However, a PE teacher (Pinki), a Sports officer (Rupa Rani Tirkey), a Police officer (Lovely Choubey) and a Forest department officer (Nayanmoni Saikia) will combined to hand India their first-ever medal in Lawn Bowls.
Lawn Bowls was the first event at the start of every day in the ongoing Birmingham Games in 2022 and since no one knew much about the sport and the participants, their performance in the women’s fours event slipped under the radar and quietly they qualified for the semi-finals. India had lost the first game against England 9-18 but managed to qualify for the quarter-finals with a 15-9 win against Cooks Islands and 17-7 against Canada.
They breezed past Norfolk Island by 19-7 in the quarters. It seemed like their winning run would be halted by New Zealand in the semis when they were 0-6 behind but recovered well to beat them 16-13. In the gold medal match, the Indian women were leading South Africa 8-2 before the opposition came back strongly to level 8-8.
However, some defining bowling in the last three rounds handed the Indian women a gold medal. Speaking to Sony Sports after the win, Pinki said that the team knew that unless they bring a medal, doors won’t open for the sport in the country.
“You can guess from our win that how much it will motivate whole of India. The best part was all four of us were determined to do well not for the team but for the country. And we knew that doors won’t open for the sport unless a medal comes. Now they are wide open,” Pinki said.
Pinki paid gratitude to the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and Bowling Federation of India (BFI) for standing behind them and supporting them in whatever they needed. She also thanked the team manager Anju Luthra and the treasurer of BFI, Krishan Bir Singh Rathi for providing the freedom they needed to perform well.
Asked about her thoughts, the team manager Anju said, “My journey has been with them only. Two out of these four players have played four Commonwealth Games and I have been manager in all of them since 2010.
“From the first day, we came eyeing the medal. Every time we used to fall short by one point and that one point gave us sleepless nights for two years, so this year we wanted to do something and bowling federation gave us ample freedom and Rathi sir has been like a backbone for use,” she concluded.
With singles, doubles and triples starting their campaigns on Wednesday, India will hope to garner a few more medals in the sport.
