King, Landers-murphy win women’s doubles gold
"I’m absolutely knackered. We’ve had a tough schedule and there’s no getting away from it. I definitely would not be here without my team picking me up all the time and getting me back on the horse." Joelle King
Joelle King and Amanda Landersmurphy have won New Zealand’s 13th gold medal of the Commonwealth Games with victory in the women’s squash doubles.
King and Landers-murphy took the match in straight games, 11-9 11-8, spending just 21 minutes on court.
The victory provides King with her third medal of the Commonwealth Games to go with gold in the women’s singles and a bronze medal in the mixed doubles with Paul Coll.
It also ends an exhausting schedule for the New Zealand squash team, something King admits to being happy about.
"I’m absolutely knackered,’’ King said after claiming her third medal. "Everyday we’d walk back into the village and all the other athletes would give us grief about still playing.
"We’ve had a tough schedule and there’s no getting away from it. I definitely would not be here without my team picking me up all the time and getting me back on the horse."
Despite the difficult schedule, King said she felt as good as she had all tournament yesterday in the final.
"It’s funny, today I felt the best out of the whole time," she said. "I woke up with a spring in my step. It’s been hard to take a moment to actually relax because I have played so many matches.
"Tonight is going to be just about enjoying it with our team and we get to see our families tonight. So it’s going to be pretty nice to get out of the village and back to a normal life."
Landers-murphy, a doubles world champion in 2016 and 2017, was stretched on the left of the court at times, but continued to find brilliant winners from difficult situations against India.
Her use of angles had her opposite, Joshna Chinappa, often searching for answers.
She said it was a relief to win the gold, to go with those World Championship titles.
"It’s sort of something I never thought would actually happen, it’s pretty surreal at the moment," Landers-murphy said.
"There’s so many (to thank). I’ve got so many friends and family here and I wouldn’t have gotten here without them.
"Of course there’s also the New Zealand Commonwealth Games team, the support staff and the medical team, they do an unbelievable job."
King was her classy self in the final. Up against a classy, gritty opponent in Dipika Pallikal Karthik on her half of the court, she was more assured than she was in the mixed doubles semifinals loss against the same opponent.
Her power again came into the game, with some of her cross court play at another level.
"They were a class pair," King said of the Indians. "They came in as defending champions and that’s always really hard to back up but they had a great final, so thank you to them."
The match ended in interesting circumstances, with what should have been a let after King got in the way of a Pallikal Karthik attempt given as a point to New Zealand. It was the third or fourth point of the final game which had India flummoxed, but the Kiwis were deserving of their win.