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What's the story?
The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) has decided to increase the size of India's quota for the number of athletes to take part in the 2018 Gold Coast Games by 10. With this, India is now set to send a total of 225 athletes to Australia, instead of the previous number, which was 215.
In case you didn't know...
India, which had hosted the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, had its competitors' list slashed from 619 to 215 in the 2014 Glasgow games. This also saw a huge drop in the country's medals tally, as the country only managed a total of 64 medals. By comparison, the Indian athletes bagged 101 medals in 2010.
The heart of the matter
The biggest rise was experienced by the athletics contingent, which will now have seven more members travelling to the CWG this year. Originally, India's quota in athletics was reduced from 32 in 2014 to 30 this year. However, after considering requests from the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), the CGF decided to increase the quota by seven spots.
Meanwhile, India's quota in boxing was to 10, before a joint request by the IOA and the Indian Boxing Federation was accepted. India's boxing quota now stands at 12, a one-spot increase from last month. This essentially means that one extra women's boxer can travel to the Games as a participant.
What's next?
The Commonwealth Games are just around the corner, and it would be interesting to see how India fares at the Games. The Indians are one of the better sides at CEG, and are expected to bring home a few medals.
Author's take
The increase in quota certainly comes as a good news for the Indians. While it was just 64 medals last time round, we could expect a higher count this time round.
