India, July 21 -- Pinki felt the pressure from within.

The trials to select India's lawn bowls squad for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games (CWG) were taking place at the Delhi Public School, RK Puram, where she is a physical education teacher. As a CWG gold medallist at Birmingham 2022, she wanted to live up to her reputation in front of her students, colleagues and principal.

"No one would have said anything, but this was my school. If I wasn't selected, what would my image be?" Pinki said.

Navneet Singh's pressure came from elsewhere. During a conversation with a federation official, he was reminded of what they did the last time. Which was bring home two medals - women's fours gold and men's fours silver - from the 2022 CWG. "I was tol...