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After a bittersweet 2016, when Indian athletes could return with just two medals from the Rio Olympics, the year gone by was replete with sporting highlights across disciplines. Here's a look at the best moments for Indian sports in 2017: Shooting Jitu Rai and Heena Sidhu pose atop the podium with their trophies. Image courtesy: Twitter/@ISSF_Shooting After the dejection of the Rio Olympics, where India's shooting contingent returned empty-handed, marksmen from the country had a fruitful year. At the season-ending ISSF World Cup Final, India finished seventh on the table after winning one gold, one silver and a bronze medal. While the pairing of Jitu Rai and Heena Sidhu got India the gold medal at the mixed team 10m air pistol, Sangram Dahiya clinched silver in men’s double trap. Amanpreet Singh took home bronze in men’s 50m pistol to give India their best-ever result in the annual ISSF shooting centrepiece. Rai had also won gold at the 50m pistol event and bronze i

On 5 December 2013, India were awarded the rights to host the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup, its first ever global football event of any stature. In early-2016, the AIFF proposed that 2017 could also see the long-awaited merger of the Indian Super League (ISL) and the I-League — India's two premier football tournaments — leading to a bigger and longer domestic competition. The proposal was later reworked and a three-tier league system — also a first in Indian football's history — was put forward. So even before it began, 2017 was earmarked as the year in which Indian football would come of age. Fast forward to the dying hours of what was perceived to be the most significant year in Indian football's history till date, the nation can look back in admiration at some path-breaking developments, and rue certain missed opportunities. India's 'Cup of Good Hope' Jeakson Singh Thounaojam celebrates with his team-mates after scoring India's first World Cup goal.

The next year will be big for almost all major sports India plays — cricket, hockey, badminton — with round-the-year action pinning fans down in front of TVs or stuck to mobile phones livestreaming the events. While 2017 saw Indian sport consolidate itself —  Virat Kohli  shone as cricket captain and badminton emerged as the Olympic sport with lots of excitement around it — 2018 should be a good indicator of where the country really stands as a sporting nation. The next year will be big for almost all major sports India plays — cricket, hockey, badminton — with round-the-year action pinning fans down in front of TVs or stuck to mobile phones livestreaming the events. The headline sporting event of the year, though, will be the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, a tournament that will be missing Italy, Chile and Holland in the list of the qualified 32. While Indians can sit back and revel in the neutral’s corner during the World Cup, they will, hopefull

IT was supposed to be ending, not a new beginning. The 2017 tennis year was not, as had been widely and breathlessly forecast, about the rise of fresh-faced “NextGen” types, but a throwback to a more classical era. Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer combined to author a season which will surely never be eclipsed for class, persistence and more than large dollop of romanticism. While the women’s game was a veritable revolving door after a pregnant Serena Williams departed centre stage with a seventh Australian Open and 23rd major under her wing. Switzerland's Roger Federer (L) and Spain's Rafael Nadal dominated men’s tennis for yet another season. As Jelena Ostapenko, Garbine Muguruza and Sloane Stephens emerged — and re-emerged — to feast on morsels left in Williams’ absence, 2017 was almost totally about Rafa and Roger. Both returned from worrying injury lay-offs to deliver appreciated reminders of enduring style, brilliance and skill. Beaten in an Australian Open

If  Saina Nehwal 's hat-trick of titles in 2010 was the catalyst which propelled Indian badminton to a different plane, 2017 has proved to be a watershed year for the sport as  Kidambi Srikanth  led the boys' victory parade with four Super Series titles in a calendar year. Since 2010, the sport has witnessed a spiraling success rate every year. The Olympic medal came in 2012 with Saina's bronze and a podium finish at the World Championships became a regular feature thereafter. Sindhu's Olympic silver at the 2016 Olympic Games catapulted the game to new heights of popularity. However, 2017 has seen greater performances from the Indian shuttlers as 13 major titles have been won by seven different players, apart from  PV Sindhu 's silver and Saina's bronze at the World Championships. Sindhu's one hour 50-minute marathon against  Nozomi Okuhara  of Japan in the Worlds final will go down in history as an epic encounter. Never in the past had so many In

Bittersweet is perhaps the best phrase to sum up India’s sporting record in 2017. The Indian team under Virat Kohli played brilliantly in the Champions Trophy in England in June to make the final, but eventually ended up second best to Pakistan. Uday Deb The women repeated the performance a month later. Beating Australia in a pulsating semi-final, they were in a position to close out the final but eventually fell short by an agonising margin of 9 runs, to finish runner up behind England before a packed house at Lord’s. PV Sindhu, who had another good year following her breakthrough performance in Rio in 2016, twice ended up second best in two closely contested finals. In fact, the world championship final between Sindhu and the Japanese Nozomi Okuhara in Glasgow will rank as one of the best badminton matches ever played. Among men, India now has four players in the top 20 in badminton with Kidambi Srikanth being the stand out performer winning a record four super series ti