Top five youngest Indian gold medallists at Commonwealth Games

Shooter Anish Bhanwala is India’s youngest Commonwealth Games gold medallist

Winning the gold at one of the world’s biggest multi-sporting events is an achievement that can completely elevate an athlete’s trajectory. To achieve this feat at the Commonwealth Games at an early age is an indicator of a supremely talented prospect.

In this article, we take a look at India’s five youngest Commonwealth Games gold medallists.

Youngest Indian gold medallists at CWG

5. Vinesh Phogat (19 years, 11 months, 4 days)

Vinesh Phogat won her first CWG gold in Glasgow 2014, when she had shifted down a weight category, moving from 51kg to 48kg. In the final, she defeated England’s Yana Rattigan to take the women’s freestyle 48kg gold.

What makes her entry on this list interesting is knowing what came after. This wasn’t a one-off teenage flash, as it kicked off the opening chapter of what became a hat-trick of Commonwealth Games wrestling golds, with further titles in 2018 at 50kg and 2022 at 53kg, moving up in weight class each time as her body matured.

Phogat is one of the select few Indian athletes who remain at the top while competing in different weight categories across three separate editions of the Games.

4. Jeremy Lalrinnunga (19 years, 9 months, 5 days)

Jeremy’s gold in Birmingham 2022 was against all odds. He defied a pulled muscle, an injured elbow, and a severe bout of cramps that forced him off the dais. He still walked away with the title in the men’s 67kg category, finishing with a combined lift of 300kg across snatch and clean and jerk.

He set a new Games record in the snatch with a 140kg lift, and his overall total of 300kg also became a new CWG record. This wasn’t his first taste of gold on the big stage either.

He had already made history as the first Indian to win a gold medal at the Youth Olympic Games, in the boys’ 62kg category back in 2018.

3. Naveen Malik (19 years, 8 months, 16 days)

Wrestling finals at the Commonwealth Games tend to be dominated by grapplers who’ve already done a few Olympic cycles, which is what made Naveen Malik’s gold so jarring.

Making his CWG debut in Birmingham 2022, he won three of his bouts by technical superiority and fell just a point short of making it four in the final. He eventually beat Pakistan’s Muhammad Sharif Tahir comprehensively in the men’s 74kg freestyle category.

2. Manu Bhaker (16 years, 1 month, 21 days)

Before Anish Bhanwala surpassed her record, Manu Bhaker had already given India its first taste of teenage brilliance at those Games. The 16-year-old from Jhajjar, Haryana, opened India’s shooting campaign at Gold Coast with a performance that belied her age. She won gold in the women’s 10m air pistol.

She had already been turning heads on the World Cup circuit before Gold Coast, and this win effectively announced her as a fixture of Indian shooting for the next decade, not just a one-off junior sensation.

1. Anish Bhanwala (15 years, 10 months, 9 days)

At just 15 years of age, Anish Bhanwala announced himself on the international stage with a remarkable performance at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.

Competing against a field of far more experienced shooters, he topped the qualification round with 580 points and 22 inner 10s before carrying that form into the final.

There, the youngster held his nerve to shoot a Games-record 30 points, finishing ahead of Australia’s Sergei Evglevski and England’s Sam Gowin to claim the gold medal.

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