With the two teams arriving in Kolkata in the next 48 hours, all roads in the 'City of Joy' lead to the Eden.
As we prepare to cruise into the New Year, Rediff.com gives you a glance back, through photos, into all the sporting moments that made the last 12 months memorable.
P V Sindhu, will have to punch above its weight to salvage any hopes of a medal after being handed a tough draw in the badminton event at the 18th Asian Games.
"I invite each one of you to become a partner in India's growth story. And once again assure you of our wholehearted support."
India captain Virat Kohli will like to 'play for another 10 years' if he is able to train as hard as he is at this point of time in his career.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday.
'Team India's participation in the Olympics couldn't have ended on a sweeter note'
Mumbai-headquartered financial services firm Edelweiss, for close to a decade now, has been aligning its brand with sporting talent of every kind except cricket. What made the company buck the trend, and has it worked?
Chief badminton coach Pullela Gopichand, who guided Saina Nehwal and P V Sindhu to Olympic medals in the successive Games, says he was lucky that he wasn't good in studies and it was a flunked IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) exam that paved his way to be a successful sportsperson.
The Sports Ministry on Thursday said it has started a "thorough review" of India's dismal outing at the Rio Olympics and is also seeking feedback and suggestions from the athletes who competed in the quadrennial extravaganza. India finished with a disappointing two medals, through PV Sindhu's silver in badminton and Sakhsi Malik's bronze in wrestling, at the two-week sporting gala last month.
The sheer diversity of medal winners was a heartwarming aspect of the Games for India. There were medals from squash, although not gold, there were nine medals from boxing, 12 from wrestling, 16 from shooting and nine from weightlifting.
The Sports Ministry removed the Rs 2 lakh cap on the salary given to Indian coaches for training elite athletes in a bid to encourage them to produce better results. The move is also aimed at attracting former players to become high performance trainers.
Dipa Karmakar says the roads in Agartala are too narrow for a BMW and also the city does not have a single BMW showroom or service centre.
The first Indian woman to clinch a silver medal at the World Championship in the 2015 edition at Jakarta, Saina has been struggling ever since, limping out of the Olympics last year with a knee injury.
An important factor in India's stupendous success in 2021 was the way the government opened its coffers to support athletes.
Here's a recap of the events from the past 24 hours.
The London Olympics bronze medallist will next play seventh seed Nozomi Okuhara of Japan, who knocked out two-time defending champion Spain's Carolina Marin 21-18, 14-21, 21-15 in the other quarter-final.
Indian grapplers simply annihilated their opponents, scooping 14 gold medals out of a total 16 on offer as the wrestling competition in the 12th South Asian Games ended, in Guwahati, on Monday.
India has been battling a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic that has forced many countries to ban travellers from India.
The Indian badminton team went down fighting against hosts South Korea (1-3) in the women's team badminton semi-finals to settle for their maiden bronze medal at the Asian Games in Incheon on Sunday.
Sachin Tendulkar has no hesitation in terming India as favourites going into the World Cup but what makes him happier is the team's ability to be competitive 'in any part of the world and on any surface'.
Mahesh Bhupathi says for India to host big-ticket WTA events, the country needs to produce a top-50 women's singles player, who can bring the fans to the stadium.
Also seen in action for India will be the shuttlers, boxers, the women's hockey team and the table tennis players among others.
A summary of Indian athletes' performance on Day 7 of the Games.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Thursday
The PM appealed to politicians, members of the film fraternity, sportspersons, businessmen, spiritual leaders and members of the media to encourage increased voter participation and urged them to inspire more people to come out and vote during the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
An Olympic campaign saved by the fortitude of three women, a cricket team that rediscovered itself under a bold and zealous Virat Kohli -- Indian sports in 2016 was a dramatic mix of highs and lows wherein athletes mostly raised the bar but administrators found new ways to embarrass the country.
'I think for the next generation to come up, we need to put a system in place which actually identifies and nurtures talent. We have grown exponentially but there is lot more which needs to be done' 'It's not only my academy, all academies across the country are running full. There are many, many parents who want their kids to give up everything and concentrate on badminton'
Commonwealth Games: The event Photographs
Asian Games will be a reality check for India's athletes after the Commonwealth Games high
Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat are in contention for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award
Presenting this year's most stylish looks ever.
Ace Indian gymnast Dipa Karmakar, who finished a historic fourth in Rio Olympics vault, aspires to beat reigning Olympic champion Simone Biles of US in Tokyo Games four years later. "My next aim is to beat Simone Biles in Tokyo 2020, that's my target. I know very well that if I aspire to beat the champion, I would at least finish with a gold or silver," the 23-year-old who was given a golden crown at a felicitation ceremony of FD Block Sarbojanin Puja Committee said.
2019 became a 'Year to Remember' in Indian sports for trailblazing performances in Olympic disciplines
India has never had so many highly-ranked shuttlers.
While Sangakkara advises the under-fire keeper-batsman to keep things simple
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
President Pranab Mukherjee addressed a joint session of Parliament ahead of the budget session which began on Tuesday. Here are the highlights of President Pranab Mukherjee's speech:
Saina Nehwal is better equipped to win a medal in Rio in August than the Indian shuttler was when she claimed a bronze at the London Olympics four years ago, former All England champion Prakash Padukone said.
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