India, Aug. 2 -- India closed the curtain on the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow with 39 medals -- 13 gold, 17 silver and nine bronze. It was short of the symbolic 50-medal mark the country had maintained at every Commonwealth Games since 2002, but this was never going to be a tournament judged purely by numbers.

With several medal-rich sports absent from the programme, owing to financial constraints in hosting the Games, whose rights were initially reserved by the state of Victoria in Australia before moving to Glasgow, expectations were naturally tempered. But the nation found new heroes, new disciplines and new reasons to celebrate. The contingent may not have managed to add to their tally on the final day, but the campaign in the ...