Commonwealth Games 2026 will take place in Glasgow, Scotland, from July 23 to August 2nd.
The 2026 edition will feature only 10 games after the original host, the Australian state of Victoria, withdrew in 2023 due to financial concerns. Glasgow offered to host the games at a smaller, cost-effective scale.
Lawn Bowls returns as one of the sports included. During the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games, India scripted history by winning its first-ever Commonwealth Games Medal in the sport.
The women’s four team clinched a historic gold medal, while the men’s team got a silver medal.
So what exactly is Lawn Bowls? Lawn bowls is a precision sport played with biased bowls and a smaller target ball called the jack.
The aim is to roll the bowls as close to the jack as possible.
At the end of every round, which is known as an “end”, the player or team whose bowl is closest to the jack scores a point. If more than one bowl is closer than the opponent’s nearest bowl, the player or team scores that many points.
The match ends when a player reaches 21 points or when a fixed number of ends has been played. If no player or team reached 21 points, the side leading after 18 or 21 ends is considered the winner.
Lawn Bowls has three disciplines: Singles, Pairs, Triples, and Fours.
The Commonwealth Games will also include Para Bowls events for athletes with physical and visual impairments.
India has competed in lawn bowls at the Commonwealth Games since the 2010 Games in New Delhi. At the time, the Indian women’s triples team came closest to winning a medal but finished fourth after losing the semi-final and bronze medal match.
At Glasgow 2014, the men’s fours team also finished fourth. At the 2018 Gold Coast Games, three Indian teams reached the quarter-finals, but none progressed to the semi-finals.
In 2022, the breakthrough finally came. The women’s fours team of Lovely Choubey, Pinki, Nayanmoni Saikia and Rupa Rani Tirkey won India their first-ever Commonwealth Games lawn bowls medal by defeating South Africa 17-10 in the final.
The men’s fours team of Sunil Bahadur, Navneet Singh, Chandan Kumar Singh and Dinesh Kumar also scripted history by winning India’s first men’s Commonwealth Games lawn bowls medal, a silver medal, after reaching the finals.
Speaking about the country’s form for the 2026 Glasgow Games, India is confident, coming off a successful campaign at the 17th Senior Asian Lawn Bowls Championships in New Delhi.
The women’s squad includes Nayanmoni Saikia, Rupa Rani Tirkey and Pinki, all members of the 2022 Birmingham gold-medal-winning squad.
India’s Squad:
Women: Nayanmoni Saikia — Singles; Rupa Rani Tirkey (lead) and Pinki (skip) — pairs.
Men: Putul Sonowal — Singles; Navneet Singh (lead), Dinesh Kumar (skip) — Pairs.
