#ThatWas2017: Top sporting achievements by India in 2017
What's the story
India did fairly well in sports in the year gone by, with major victories ranging from PV Sindhu's World Championships silver medal to Indian blind cricket team winning the T20 World Cup. During the course of the year, India saw its various sporting icons like Mary Kom, Pankaj Advani, Vijender Singh, doing what they do best. Let's look at the top moments of 2017.
Cricket's top two
Highlights of India's most loved sports
While the Indian national cricket team created record in 2017 with its unbeaten run at home, the Indian blind cricket team deserves all the love for winning the T20 World Cup beating rivals Pakistan in the final. Indian women also did the country proud by reaching the final of ICC Women's Cricket World Cup despite losing the title to England.
Indian domination
The year of badminton
It began with Sindhu winning the silver medal at World Championships. She then went on to win two Superseries titles (India Open, Korea Open) and a silver at the Superseries finals. Indian shuttlers, as a bunch, had a great year with Kidambi Srikanth winning an astounding four of this year's seven Superseries titles- Indonesia, Australia, Denmark and French Opens.
Asia Cup
Small victories in hockey
While the Indian men's hockey team did not have major victories to boast of, Asia Cup gold and bronze in the Hockey World League Final are the small victories to cherish. Similarly, the women's team also won the Asia Cup after a gap of 13 long years which helped India seal their spot in the 2018 Hockey World Cup.
Boxing, biliards
Less popular significant achievements
In the other major achievements, Indian billiards champion, Pankaj Advani, continued his dominance with his 18th World title. Five-time world boxing champion, Mary Kom, made a resounding international comeback with a gold medal at the Asian Boxing Championships. Vijender Singh extended his unbeaten streak in the professional boxing to ten after defending his Asia Pacific super middleweight and Oriental super middleweight titles.
Data
Dwarf Games and Deaflympics
In 2017, Indian team bagged a record 37 medals at the World Dwarf Games, and five medals at the Deaflympics, their most successful campaign yet.