Commonwealth Kabaddi Championship: India’s Double Gold Delights Home Fans
India Win Men’s And Women’s Titles At First Commonwealth Kabaddi Championship
India’s men and women claimed gold medals at the inaugural Commonwealth Kabaddi Championship in Ahmedabad on October 31, with convincing wins over Sri Lanka and Uganda in the finals.
The Indian women defeated Uganda 35-15, while the men beat Sri Lanka 54-20 at the Veer Savarkar Sports Complex. Both teams finished their campaigns unbeaten, giving India a clean sweep of the two titles at the nine-day tournament.
The championship, held from October 23 to 31, brought together 13 nations in the men’s competition and 10 in the women’s event. Organised by the Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India (AKFI), with approval from the International Kabaddi Federation (IKF), it was the first Commonwealth championship devoted to kabaddi.
India’s women, led by captain Nidhi Sharma, controlled the final from the opening minutes. Sakshi led the attack with nine raid points from 10 raids, including two bonus points. She scored seven points in the first half, succeeding in all six of her raids.
Anu added six raid points, while Nidhi Sharma scored five, including three bonus points. Defenders Ritu and Suman collected four tackle points each.
India scored 20 raid points and 10 tackle points, and forced Uganda into two All-Outs. Uganda’s Nakayongo Shirat was the main source of points for her side, scoring 11 of its 15 points, including three bonus points. She made 24 of Uganda’s 35 raids.
The other Ugandan raiders managed three points between them. Nalwoga Nahia, who had starred in the semi-final, was restricted to one point.
India had a 7-3 lead with 10 minutes of the first half remaining. The team then scored 15 points against Uganda’s four, including an All-Out, to go into the break with a 22-7 advantage.
India did not lose a raid in the first half. Uganda failed in all nine of its tackle attempts, while Indian defenders made six successful tackles. Uganda did better after the break, edging India 7-6 on raid points, but a second All-Out with less than 10 minutes left ended any chance of a comeback.
Across the match, India made 10 successful tackles and converted three of its four do-or-die raids.
Sakshi finished the championship with 52 points from six matches. After the final, she said, “I’m feeling great that I could score 9 raid points and help the team win. The atmosphere in the team is euphoric after winning the gold medal and everyone is very happy. This event was very important for Kabaddi as such International tournaments will help the growth of the sport and our young players will benefit a lot from this experience. I could see a lot of improvement in other teams from last year. I want to thank AKFI for organising such a wonderful championship.”
India’s women had opened their campaign with a 73-13 win over Malaysia. They went on to beat Singapore 32-16, Uganda 41-18 and Nigeria 38-10 to finish top of Group A. A 39-14 semi-final win over Sri Lanka took them into the final, where they faced Uganda for the second time.
The men’s final followed a similar pattern. India, led by captain Surjeet Singh, defeated Sri Lanka 54-20 to secure the first men’s Commonwealth kabaddi title.
Aditya Shinde led the Indian attack with a Super 10, scoring 10 raid points from 14 raids, including four bonus points. Bharat Hooda added eight raid points, all in the second half, and was not tackled in seven raids.
Pankaj Mohite scored six points, while vice-captain Naveen Kumar added five. Yogesh Dahiya led the defence with a High 5, making five successful tackles from five attempts, all in the first half. Shubham Shinde, Surjeet Singh, Pravesh Malik and Deepak Sankar contributed two tackle points each.
India scored 30 raid points and 14 tackle points, forcing four All-Outs without conceding one.
Sri Lanka’s Maduwantha scored six tackle points, including two Super Tackles. Ansaf and Viduranga added three points each. Sri Lanka’s raiders struggled to score, managing only 11 raid points and nine tackle points in total.
India led 15-8 with 10 minutes of the first half remaining. They then scored 15 points against Sri Lanka’s two to take a 30-10 lead at half-time. The second All-Out came in the closing five minutes of the half.
Sri Lanka managed only two successful raids from 21 attempts before the break. Indian defenders made nine successful tackles from 10 attempts. India inflicted two more All-Outs after half-time, the last in the final five minutes, and won the second half 24-10.
India made 24 successful raids from 40 attempts, compared with Sri Lanka’s seven from 41.
Aditya Shinde said after the final, “With more and more tournaments being held, it’s great for the people of Ahmedabad too, and we received so much support from them. We hope everyone comes out to support us the same way in the competitions ahead. There will be a celebration, a really big one, and it’s already going on here!”
India’s men won all eight matches in the championship. They topped Group A after beating England 46-26, Uganda 44-30, Malaysia 37-23, Nigeria 50-23, Tanzania 48-20 and Sri Lanka 45-24. They then defeated Bangladesh 56-27 in the semi-final before beating Sri Lanka again in the final.
The team scored 380 points and conceded 193 across the tournament. No opponent scored more than 30 points against India.
The double victory gave India the first men’s and women’s titles in the Commonwealth Kabaddi Championship. The event also offered teams from across the Commonwealth a chance to compete in a dedicated international tournament, with Ahmedabad set to host the Commonwealth Games in 2030.
For India, the two gold medals came after nine days of competition on home soil, with both teams completing unbeaten runs to the top of the podium.
