Year-ender 2025: Five key takeaways for Indian sport

It’s that time of the year when one must take stock of Indian sport's balance sheet for 2025. An eventful year, during which if the women’s cricket team broke a jinx to win their first-ever ICC World Cup in any format, Divya Deshmukh kept India’s flag flying in the global chess arena by emerging as the women’s World Cup champion.

No less exciting was javelin ace Neeraj Chopra finally breaching the 90-metre barrier at Doha Diamond League, though his legion of fans were heartbroken when he failed to make a podium finish at the World Championship. India were also awarded the 2030 Commonwealth Games with Ahmedabad as the venue.

We thought it prudent to keep cricket aside for another day while picking five key moments of Indian sports in 2025. Here we go:

Ahmedabad gets 2030 Commonwealth Games

When India announced plans to bid for the 2030 Commonwealth Games with Ahmedabad as the host city, it was a given that the country would be in line to host the multi-discipline event for the second time after 2010. A legacy of the British raj, the event now struggles for takers, with the 2026 edition in Glasgow slated to be a truncated one with only 10 disciplines.

With 74 nations supporting India’s bid in Glasgow, Ahmedabad now needs to walk the talk as the event will be seen as a dress rehearsal for India's aspiration to host Olympics 2036. A total of 15-17 disciplines will be lined up and with it, there is a possibility of adding some handpicked traditional Indian disciplines.

Divya Deshmukh: Women’s World Cup champion

The great Indian surge in chess continued with Divya Deshmukh, the gifted 19-year-old from Maharashtra, grabbing the headlights with the FIDE Women’s World Cup title in July. It was a clash of two generations in an all-India final in Batumi, Georgia where Divya prevailed over veteran Koneru Humpy.

If 2024 belonged to D. Gukesh for becoming the FIDE world champion in classical chess, this year saw Divya riding the hype. However, India’s A-listers were found wanting in the Candidates series with R. Praggnanandhaa the only Indian to qualify for the event in Cyprus so far.

Neeraj Chopra: Breaking the 90m barrier

The year must have been a bitter sweet one for javelin ace Neeraj Chopra. While he looked in excellent nick in the early part of the season under the coaching of idol Jan Jelezny to breach his long cherished 90-metre mark, the former Olympic and world champion missed out on a podium finish after seven years at the Tokyo World Championship in August.

An eighth place finish with a best throw of 84.03 m (less than his qualifying mark of 84.85 m) was simply not enough, with younger compatriot Sachin Yadav overshadowing him with a stupendous effort of 86.27 m to finish fourth. It was after 26 events that Neeraj failed to finish in the top two, a testimony to his remarkable consistency. Don’t rule him out from springing surprises in future.

Men regain Hockey Asia Cup

Harmanpreet Singh & Co. ended an eight-year wait to regain the Asia Cup hockey title in Bihar's Rajgir, notching up a 4-1 victory over South Korea in the final at a packed Rajgir Sports Complex. The title them helped them qualify for the 2026 World Cup, to be jointly hosted by Belgium and the Netherlands.

The men’s hockey team, which claimed back-to-back bronze finishes in the last two Olympics, will have its task cut out in European conditions. It looks a settled unit under head coach Graham Fulton while the team management can look for necessary reinforcements in the junior men’s team, which landed a bronze in the Junior World Cup in Chennai earlier this year.   

Sheetal Devi: Para World Archery champion

The 18-year-old Sheetal Devi from Jammu & Kashmir continued to inspire as she scripted history by becoming the first woman armless archer to win a world championship gold in the compound individual section. She also broke new ground by being selected for the Indian able-bodied junior team for the Asia Cup Stage 3 in Jeddah, marking another first for an Indian para-athlete.

Incidentally, the Indian men’s compound archery team won their first-ever gold medal at the World Archery Championship in South Korea. There have been several other headline-grabbing performances along the way – be it Suruchi Singh emerging as the new star to watch out for or the national women’s football teams, who made up for the men by qualifying for the Under-17, U-20 and women’s AFC Asian Cup finals next year.