Picture Courtesy : Hindustan Times
Indian stars have lived up their expectations at the Commonwealth games 2018 at Gold Coast Australia. Indian players have left their mark in all disciplines so far.
A t the time of writing this report, joining the gold medal bandwagon is ace shooter Heena Sidhu. She won the gold in the women’s 25 metre Pistol, staving off a stiff challenge from Australia’s Elina Galiabovitch in the final at the Commonwealth Games . Alia Sazana Azahari of Malaysia won bronze.
The Indian ace hit the bull’s eye with her first two shots in the five-shot final before missing the third. But that hardly mattered as she was on target in the next two and the Australian missed the target on her first and fifth shots.
Powered by Saina Nehwal Indian mixed badminton team claimed its maiden Commonwealth Games gold medal, thrashing three-time defending champions Malaysia in the final 3-1.
The pair of Satwik Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa claimed the mixed doubles match against Peng Soon Chan and Liu Yong Goh 21-14 15-21 21-15, before Kidambi Srikanth stunned three-time Olympic silver medallist Lee 21-17 21-14 in straight games, his firs victory over the Malaysian giant.
The Games debutant men’s doubles pair of Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty lost narrowly to Goh and Wee Kiong Tan 15-21 20-22, keeping Malaysia afloat for a while. But Saina sealed the issue with her win in the women’s singles, though she was made to work hard for her 21-11, 19-21, 21-9 victory as India’s claimed their 10th gold medal of the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
“It was exhausting, I actually lost focus during the match but thankfully managed to hold it together and ensure that the gold medal winning shot was mine,” said the London Olympics bronze-medallist.
“It is a medal that I will forever cherish, it is very special. Team gold is always way more cherishable,” she added.
Earlier, India had won the mixed team silver and bronze respectively in the 2010 and 2006 editions of the Commonwealth Games.
India swept the table tennis team events of the Commonwealth Games as the men matched the women to claim a memorable gold with an emphatic 3-0 win over Nigeria in the final, in Gold Coast.
Sharat Kamal set the ball rolling by beating Bode Abiodun in the opening singles. The experienced Indian was sluggish to start with, losing the first game.
From the second game onwards, 48th-ranked Kamal was his usual self, unleashing forehand drives on either side of the table. His power and range of strokes was too hot to handle for the Nigerian as Kamal completed a 4-11, 11-5, 11-4, 11-9 win.
Just like his senior teammate, G Sathiyan too fumbled in the first game but bounced back in style to outplay 2002 CWG singles gold medallist Segun Toriola 10-12, 11-3, 11-3, 11-4.
