Best sporting moments of 2024

Best sports of 2024; Gukesh’s World Chess Championship win, Ashwin, Nadal and Rani Rampal retirement; india loses 0-3 to New Zealand at home

Indian Grandmaster D. Gukesh’s World Chess Championship triumph, the Indian cricket team bringing back the Twenty20 World Cup after 2007 and Manu Bhaker bagging two individual medals at the Paris Olympics... fans will cherish 2024 as one of the best years for Indian sports.

There were some closes misses too... The Indian men’ s hockey team had to settle for a bronze at Paris despite a valiant effort from the team with captain Harmanpreet Singh leading from the front. Goalkeeper P.R. Sreejesh announced his retirement and joined as the coach for the national junior hockey team. 

And a heartbreak too happened at Paris. Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem dethroned Neeraj Chopra to become the new Olympic champion at the javelin event. Nadeem’s massive thrown of over 92m gave him the yellow medal while India’s Neeraj Chopra had to settle for silver. 

Along with World Cup high, the Indian cricketers delivered some disappointments as well. Against New Zealand, the men’s team faced a humiliating whitewash at home. It was the first time that India lost all the Test matches in a series since 2000.

The Indian women’s hockey team could not make it to the Paris Olympics but ended the year with a stupendous victory in the Women’s Asian Champions Trophy.

An intriguing race is on for the World Test Championship final. South Africa at No.1 position followed by Australia and India. With the win over Pakistan in the first Test at Centurion, South Africa became the first team to book a place in the WTC final, which will be played at the Lords in 2025.

India may have lost the crucial Boxing Day contest by 184 runs but all is not lost as far as their chances of qualifying for the WTC final are concerned.