In life, you win some; you lose some. The story is no different in sports.

For India, 2016 has been a landmark year, in spite of a largely disappointing performance at the Rio Olympics. Here, we take a look back of how the country performed in sports this year.

Archery

A lot was expected from India’s Archery contingent at the Rio Olympics. However, we did not win any medals, and the Olympics ended on a disappointing note.

Atanu Das finished fourth at the Indoor Archery World Cup. He also missed out on a bronze medal narrowly at the Archery World Cup earlier in the year.

At the Archery World Cup in Antalya, Turkey, the Indian mixed recurve team claimed the silver medal while the women’s recurve team and the women’s compound team both finished fourth in their respective events.

Image Courtesy: worldarchery

Athletics

It was a glorious year for athletics in India, particularly in the Paralympic Games. Mariyappan Thangavelu and Devendra Jhajharia claimed the gold medal in the high jump and javelin throw respectively. Varun Singh Bhati won the bronze medal in the high jump while Deepa Malik won the silver medal in Shotput.

Manish Singh Rawat was yet another incredible story of 2016. He finished 13th in 20km race walking at the Olympics. Lalita Babar finished 10th in the 3000m steeplechase in Rio, with a timing of 9:22.74

Image Courtesy: siliconeer

Badminton

2016 is the year that this sport finally got the deserved recognition in India. With the likes of Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu headlining India’s badminton talents, it was inevitable to happen at some point.

Sindhu went on to win the silver medal at the Rio Olympics. She went down fighting to Carolina Marin in the final. The 20-year-old also won her first Superseries Open this year at the China Open Superseries.

Saina Nehwal crashed out of the Olympics in the second round after sustaining an injury. However, she had earlier emerged victorious at the Australian Open Superseries.

Kidambi Srikanth was the lone Indian male shuttler at the Olympics. However, he crashed out in the quarter-finals after losing to Lin Dan. At the 2016 South Asian Games, he won two gold medals, in men’s team and men’s singles.

This year is also the first time where ten Indian male shuttlers are ranked in the top 100 in the world with six of them in the top 50.

Image Courtesy: atozwalls

Basketball

India performed commendably at the FIBA Asia Challenge 2016 as they finished 7th in the competition, their best performance in decades. India finished with a 4-4 record, with wins against the higher-ranked Philippines, China, Kazakhstan and Chinese Taipei.

India defeated Bangladesh 5-4 to clinch the U-18 Asia Cup.

Palpreet Singh Brar joined Satnam Singh in the NBA D-League

Image Courtesy: sportskeeda

Billiards

Pankaj Advani ended the year by claiming his 12th World Billiards Championship (150-up format). He also won the Asian 6 Red Snooker title and won the bronze medal at the 2016 Asian Snooker Championship and the 2016 Six-Red World Championships. The 31-year-old cueist added another bronze medal at the IBSF World Snooker Championship in Doha.

Image Courtesy: playo

Boxing

Vijender Singh, who bid adieu to amateur boxing and took to professional boxing last year, maintained an undefeated streak this year. He won the WBO Asia Pacific Super Middleweight by beating Kerry Hope and then defended it successfully against Francis Cheka. He finished the year with a winning record of 5-0, four of which were knockouts.

Image Courtesy: ulpnet

Chess

Former world champion Vishwanathan Anand claimed the first position at the Champions Showdown chess tournament held in St. Louis, United States. He also finished third at the Candidates chess tournament.

Aakanksha Hagawane won the girls’ under-16 title in the World Youth Chess Championships in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. The 15-year-old youngster also bagged the gold medal in the U-16 Commonwealth Championships earlier in the year in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

At the World Chess Olympiad, the men’s team finished fourth while the women’s team finished fifth.

Image Courtesy: orissapost

Cricket

India dominated in Test cricket throughout the year. Virat Kohli’s side has won nine out of the twelve Test matches while drawing three. They won all three Test series against New Zealand, West Indies and England.

In the T20Is India had an average year. While they blanked Australia 3-0 and won the Asia Cup, the team lost out in the semi-finals of the ICC T20 World Cup at home.

In ODIs, India lost the series against Australia but won against New Zealand.

The team’s win-loss ratio in 2016 reads 2.818, which is way ahead of the next best team, South Africa. They lost just 11 matches throughout 2016, a year that India absolutely dominated in this sport.

At the U-19 Cricket World Cup, India finished as runners-up.

The women’s cricket team also had a landmark year despite a disappointing T20 World Cup. They defeated Australia in…