Commonwealth Games (CWG) 2010 Latest Update : India wins Gold in Table Tennis

Achanta Sharath Kamal had his ‘golden revenge’ on Wednesday. He and Subhajit Saha registered a hard-earned victory against the lethal combination of Singaporeans Gao Ning and Yang Zi to win gold in men’s table tennis doubles final at the Commonwealth Games.

It was Yang who had halted Sharath’s progress in the men’s singles with a 4-3 win in the semi-finals. On the other hand, Gao Ning had defeated India’s Soumyadeep Roy 4-0 in the other semi-final clash on Wednesday.

But Sharath teamed up with Saha to return the favour in the evening and registered a 3-2 (9- 11, 12-10, 11-4, 5-11, 11-8) win against the Singaporeans. In the men’s doubles, all plans of the Singaporeans were stonewalled by Sharath and Saha, but it was only after a gruelling 33-minute battle that the Indians came out victorious.

“It is very difficult to motivate yourself but we made it. Just as I came out after my singles’ loss, my coach (Costantini) told me ‘champion, go take some rest’, which shows his confidence in me,” Sharath said after the victory.

The long rallies, supple wrist work and blazing smashes that they exhibited were testaments to the quality of the match that was on offer. The Singaporean duo took the lead with a 11-9 win in the first game. But the Indian pair, spurred by a capacity crowd at the Yamuna Sports Complex, lifted themselves just in time and drew level in the second.

After that, there was a spring in their stride as they took a 7-0 lead in the third game, which they eventually won 11-4 before their rivals returned the favour in the next to take the match into the decider.

The repertoire of strokes from the visitors was evenly matched by Sharath and Saha and it was only at eight-all that the Indian paddlers knocked off three straight points to seal the issue. “It couldn’t get better than this. There was a lot of pressure on each of us. We just wanted this gold medal,” Sharath said.

Sharath, who won the gold in the men’s singles at the Melbourne Games, was over the moon after the victory as he hugged his coach Massimo Costantini, who was constantly giving his inputs to him and Saha during the match.

Sharath, 28, has had a very successful year so far with titles at the US Open in July and the Egypt Open Championship. He will now play Roy in an all-India bronze medal clash on Thursday.

In women’s doubles, India’s Poulomi Ghatak and Mouma Das found the going tough and were handed a straightgame (3-0) thrashing by Singaporeans Sun Beibei and Li Jiawei. After the gold on Wednesday, India is assured of at least four medals with a silver medal in the women’s team event and a bronze by the men’s team already in its pocket.