Sharath Kamal wins gold in men’s singles
BIRMINGHAM: Veteran Sharath Kamal extended his domination at the Commonwealth Games here by winning the gold medal in men’s singles event, thrashing England’s Liam Pitchford 4-1 in the final.
After going down in the first game, Sharath outsmarted the 29- year- old nimble- footed Briton 11-13 11-7 11-2 11-6 11-8 to finish on top of podium after a gap of 16 years.
The 40-year-old Sharath had earlier won gold in men’s singles at the Melbourne Games in 2006 and also bagged a bronze at the 2010 showpiece in New Delhi.
The Tamil Nadu-born superstar paddler has a rich haul of four medals in this edition of the Games, having won the men’s team and mixed team gold and a silver in the men’s doubles event.
With Monday’s sensational gold, Sharath has taken his overall medal tally to 13 at the CWG, since making his Games debut in 2006.
Sharath-Akula wins
Sharath Kamal teamed up with young Sreeja Akula to win the mixed doubles gold medal. Barring a blip in the second game, Sharath and Akula pair was in complete control of the tie, comfortably beating Javen Choong and Karen Lyne of Malaysia 11-4, 9-11, 11-5, 11-6 in the gold medal contest.
Sharath produced a class act to also reach the men’s singles final.
The 40- year- old paddler, who won a bronze medal in the last edition in Gold Coast, defeated home country’s Paul Drinkhall 11- 8, 11- 8, 8- 11, 11- 7, 9- 11, 11- 8 to reach his second CWG final.
The only other time Sharath, fourth seeded here, made it to the final, he returned with a gold in the 2006 edition in Melbourne.
For Akula, it was her maiden CWG medal. Earlier in the day, the seasoned pair of Sharath and G Sathiyan was outsmarted by familiar foes Drinkhall and Liam Pitchford of England in the men’s doubles final.
The Indian duo had to settle for silver for the second successive edition after losing 11-8, 8- 11, 3- 11, 11- 7, 4- 11 to the English combine.
It was a repeat of the 2018 final in Gold Coast and to the disappointment of the Indians, it was the same result. The Indian contingent has been getting tons of support from the crowd here but at the NEC table tennis arena on Sunday, English fans outnumbered the Indians.
With very little separating the two pairs, the Indians began well with Sathiyan hitting a crisp forehand winner to go 1- 0 up in the gold medal match.
Drinkhall and Pitchford fought back in the second game.
A down the line backhand from Pitchford made it 5-1 for England.
The Indians were having a tough time retrieving the serve with their opponents mixing things up.
Sharath’s returns from the backhand were yielding mixed results. Pitchford’s cross court winner after a long rally gave England a 7-5 lead before they levelled the tie.
The English pair ran away with the third game which had the best rally of the match which Indians won after trading a series of booming forehands far away from the table.
The Indians were able to take the final to the decider after course correction in the fourth game.
Sathiyan wins bronze
(G Sathiyan bagged his maiden CWG singles medal as he won bronze, beating home-favourite Paul Drinkhall 4-3 in front of a packed crowd here.
Sathiyan avenged his men’s doubles final loss against Drinkhall and triumphed 11-9 11-3 11-5 8-11 9-11 10-12 and 11-9. The bronze was Sathiyan’s sixth overall medal at the Commonwealth Games since Gold Coast 2018 and back-toback medals in as many days.