new zealanders the scottish kenyans south africans northern irelanders jamaicans and more in the 2018 cwg indian won a total of three medals in athletics one gold one silver and one bronze in the recently concluded edition in birmingham that number went up to 8what was in fact incredible to see more than the 625 increase in medal count was the number of historic medals indian athletes won in events they had never dominated beforein the mens 3000m steeplechase avinash sable bettered his own national record to become the first nonkenyan athlete to finish on the podium in this discipline for the first time since the 1994 edition with his silver medal he is also the first indian ever to win a cwg medal in this event the incredible goldsilver win by eldhose paul and abdulla aboobacker in the mens triple jump event made headlines everywhere it was the first time an indian won the gold medal in the mens triple jump event and also the first time two indians finished on the podium in the event photo by shaun botterillgetty imagesannu rani also joined the historic list by becoming the first indian female javelin thrower to win a cwg medal by clinching a bronze medal priyanka goswami shattered a three year old national record to become the first indian female race walker to win a medal at the cwg she bagged a silver in the womens 10000m race walk event tejaswin shankars bronze in the mens high jump event made him the first indian to win a cwg medal in high jump murali sreesahankars silver in the mens long jump was also a historic achievement what will help us understand this improvement in performance better is a graphical look of the athletics disciplines in which india won the medals in 2022 vis a vis 2018below is the breakup of the disciplines india bagged medals in in athletics in the last two editions of the cwgmedals in events like triple jump long jump steeplechase and womens javelin in 2022 a real reason to celebrate indian sports overall and also the steady rise of indian athletics overall india have so far won 36 athletics medals at the cwg from the 1934 edition onwards india didnt participate in the editions in 1950 1962 and 1986 out of those as many as 14 were won in the last three editions combined three in 2014 three in 2018 and eight in 2022afp photonow lets shift focus to the asian games these are games where india have traditionally done much better in athletics of course because of the reduced number of participating countries in fact india has won its maximum asian games medals in athletics a whopping 254 medals with 79 gold 88 silver and 87 bronze the next best performing sport for india at the asian games overall is wrestling which has 59 medals over the last two editions itself there has been a significant increase in athletics medals for india at