What's the performance of Independent India at the 1950 Commonwealth Games? How many nations are participating in this edition? Who is Shera? Or for that matter, K M Beenamol?
Want to know answers, head to Commonwealth Express that has chugged into Karnataka and stationed at Ashokpuram railway station. The special train promoting the international sporting events brings with it a wealth of information on Indian sports, with special focus on CWG.
The exhibition train was opened for the public by Mysore divisional railway manager B B Verma. Soon, children thronged Ashokpuram railway station to have a sneakpeak into the sporting achievements of India. For Shrunga from Mandya, the special train is a window to the CWG. "It gave me the whole picture in a nutshell," she said. "It's educating in a sense for the kids since we won't know much of the details," said Anupama.
As one takes a ride through the special train, visitors are introduced to the CWG, its journey and idea behind it, landmarks it achieved and what Delhi has to offer this October. It also describes the green part of this CWG. For the record, an MoU has been signed with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which has planned sustainable site planning by designing and constructing environmental-friendly buildings. This give this edition of the games as green CGW.
There are interesting tidbits too: The CGW, held once in four years, is a unique, world-class, multi-sports event that started its journey as British Empire Games in 1930. In 1966, it was renamed as British Commonwealth Games and from 1978 it got its present name. The sporting activity is also known as friendly games. The first CWG was hosted by Canadas Hamilton in 1930 when 11 nations competed in six sporting events. Cut to the present: 71 nations will vie for the medals in 17 sports and four Paralympics sports.
The India Railway, which has brought the exhibition to Mysore, has made a detailed description of Shera, the mascot of the CWG, who derives his name from Hindi Sher, the tiger. There is a section where achievements of the Indian iconic starts in sports are put on display. The section has some of the interesting details like K M Beenamols record: She is the third Indian to reach semi-finals in Olympics after P T Usha and Shiny Wilson.
The first five bogies of the eleven in the special train deals with the CWG while rest is about India's IT revolution which, the students, said is a good break.
Since 1994 edition, Indian medal tally is on the rise touching 50 in 2006. Visit the expo for many more interesting details.
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